3i8 The H^mting IVasps 



have obscured the facts which I wished to 

 ascertain. I needed a fresh subject, one not 

 over-excited and solely concerned with the im- 

 pulses of the first moment. An opportunity 

 soon presented itself. 



I uncover the burrow from end to end as I 

 have just explained, but without touching the 

 contents : I leave the larva in its place, I re- 

 spect the provisions ; everything in the house 

 is in order ; there is nothing lacking but the 

 roof. Well, in front of this open dwelling, of 

 which the eye freely takes in every detail : 

 entrance-hall, gallery, cell at the back with the 

 gmb and its heap of Flies ; in front of this 

 dwelling now a trench, at the end of which the 

 larva wriggles under the blistering rays of the 

 sun, the mother behaves exactly as her prede- 

 cessor did. She alights at the point where the 

 entrance used to be. It is here that she does 

 her digging and sweeping ; and it is here that 

 she always returns after hurried visits elsewhere, 

 within a radius of a few inches. There is no 

 exploration of the tunnel, no anxiety about the 

 tortured larva. The giTib, whose delicate epi- 

 dermis has just passed from the cool moisture 

 of an underground cave to the fierce blaze of an 

 untempered sun, is writhing on its heap of 

 chewed Flies ; the mother does not give it a 

 thought. To her it is no more than an}/ 



