314 ^-^^^ Httnting Wasps 



more than did the stercoral effluvia. Something 

 surer than scent tells her where her nest lies. 



The antennae have often been suggested as 

 the seat of a special sense able to guide insects. 

 I have already shown how the amputation of 

 those organs seems in no way to impede the 

 Wasp's investigations. Let us try once more, 

 under more complicated conditions. I seize the 

 Bembex, cut off her antennae at the roots, and 

 at once release her. Goaded by pain, maddened 

 at having been imprisoned in my fingers, the 

 insect darts off faster than an arrow. I have to 

 wait for a good hour, very uncertain as to 

 whether it will come back. The Wasp arrives 

 however and, with her unvarying precision, 

 alights quite close to her door, whose appearance 

 I have changed for the fourth time. The site 

 of the nest is now covered with a spreading 

 mosaic of pebbles the size of a walnut. My 

 work, which, as regards the Bembex, surpasses 

 what the megalithic monuments of Brittany 

 or the rows of menhirs at Camac are to us, 

 is powerless to deceive the mutilated insect. 

 Though deprived of her antennae, the Wasp finds 

 her entrance in the middle of my mosaic as 

 easily as the same insect, supplied with those 

 organs, would have done under other condi- 

 tions. This time I let the faithful mother go 

 indoors in peace. 



