BURGLARS 293 



possession of the burrows that the sohtary bee 

 Osmia has made in a bramble-stem. It lays its eggs 

 there, and the young Sapyga grub begins life by 

 eating the egg of Osmia, and thereafter consumes 

 the provisions laid up by the bee. 



Some of the parasitic wasps confine their depre- 

 dations to the nests of other wasps. Thus Pomfilus, 

 one of the Spider-hunting Wasps (see page 29), 

 has its nest invaded by a relative named Ceropales, 

 who lays an egg on the freshly brought in spider, 

 and so anticipates Pompilus^ own egg-laying. More 

 frequently Ceropales, like Epeolus, saves herself the 

 trouble of hunting out Pompilus^ nest by watching 

 Pompilus when she is stalking spiders. When she 

 has secured her prey and is flying heavily home 

 with it, Ceropales, flying light, overtakes and lays 

 an egg upon the burden. One is inclined to 

 sympathize with Pompilus in this matter, but some 

 observations of Ferton's tend to withhold our pity 

 and make us exclaim " arcades ambo " ; for he says 

 that when Pompilus has caught a spider, one of 

 her own tribe may come along and despoil her of 

 it forcibly. 



Larrada australis waits until Sceliphron Icetus, one 

 of the Mud-dauber Wasps (see page 81), has made 

 her mud-cell and provisioned it, and then — under 

 the eyes of the builder — proceeds to partition off 

 part of the cell and its food-supply in which she 

 lays her own egg. It is to be presumed that the 

 Larrada grub eats up the Sceliphron grub. Whittell 

 says there is a little preliminary skirmishing between 



