286 The Hunting JVasps 



easily of a mortal enemy who is contemplating 

 the ruin of your family and would furnish a 

 nice little meal for it, to be able to do that and 

 not do it when the enemy is there, within reach 

 of you, watching you, defying you : this is the 

 height of animal aberration. But aberration 

 is not the right word ; let us rather speak of 

 the harmony of created things, for, since this 

 wretched little Fly has her tiny part to play 

 in the general order, the Bembex must needs 

 respect her and like a craven flee before her, 

 else there would long since have been none 

 of her left in the world. 



Let us now tell the history of this parasite. 

 Among the nests of the Bembex, we find very 

 frequently some that are occupied at the same 

 time by the larva of the Wasp and by other 

 larvae, strangers to the family and gluttonous 

 companions of the first. These strangers are 

 smaller than the Bembex' nurseling, tear- 

 shaped and of a purplish colour, due to the tint 

 of the baby-food that shows through the 

 transparent body. They vary in number : 

 there are sometimes half-a-dozen of them, 

 sometimes ten or more. They belong to a 

 species of Fly, as is evident from their shape 

 and also confirmed by the pupae which we find 

 in their place. Home-breeding completes the 

 proof. When reared in boxes, on a layer of 



