The Fly-hunt 277 



the quarry removed from between the legs of 

 the Bembex, it is not rare to observe signs of a 

 hurried capture, made anyhow, according to the 

 chances of a rough-and-tumble fight. The Fly 

 sometimes has her head turned the wrong way 

 round, as though the spoiler had wrung her 

 neck ; her wings are crushed ; her fur, when she 

 possesses any, is ruffled. I have seen some that 

 had their bellies ripped open by their assailant's 

 mandibles and had lost their legs in the battle. 

 As a rule, however, the victim is intact. 



No matter : considering the nature of the 

 game, endowed with good wings for flying, the 

 capture must take place with a suddenness 

 that makes it hardly possible, I should say, 

 to obtain paralysis unaccompanied by death. 

 A Cerceris face to face with her clumsy Weevil, 

 a Sphex grappling with the fat Cricket or the 

 portly Ephippiger, an Ammophila holding her 

 caterpillar by the skin of its neck, all three 

 have an advantage over a prey which is too 

 slow in its movements to avoid attack. They 

 can take their time, select at their ease the 

 mathematical spot where the sting is to pene- 

 trate, and lastly go to work with the precision 

 of an anatomist probing with his scalpel the 

 patient who lies before him on the operating- 

 table. But with the Bembex it is a very 

 different matter : at thejeast alarm, the game 



