34 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



hidden treasure, but which was too deeply embedded 

 in the earth to yield to her efforts. She did her 

 work faithfully, although with such eager haste 

 that all was completed at the end of twenty minutes 

 from the time we saw her first. So well was the 

 place hidden that it was only by careful orientation 

 that we could be certain of its exact locality." 



An allied insect, Sphex, has had its doings chron- 

 icled at length by Fabre. Sphex is a strenuous 

 worker, for during the four weeks or so to which 

 its activities as a winged insect are restricted it 

 sinks no fewer than ten deep perpendicular shafts 

 each with three or four separate chambers at the 

 bottom, stored with food and each furnished with 

 an egg. It selects a slight elevation of the soil, and 

 into this it bores a horizontal gallery two or three 

 inches in length. At the end of this gallery it sinks 

 the perpendicular shaft, also for a depth of about 

 three inches, and at the bottom the oval cells are 

 made side by side. These are so constructed that 

 the longer axes of the ovals are horizontal ; and the 

 first formed is provisioned and sealed up before the 

 second one is dug. 



The provisions for each cell consist of three or 

 four field crickets, and these are carefully stung in 

 the three principal nerve centres of the body, which 

 has the effect of completely paralyzing the cricket 

 without killing it. It is carried by the Sphex 

 to the mouth of the burrow, where it is dropped 

 whilst the wasp goes in to ascertain that all 

 is right. Then, grasping the cricket by its antennae. 



