498 THE BURROWING WASPS. 



habit of making burrows into the ground or in posts, and placing therein their eggs, 

 together with the bodies of other insects which are destined to serve as food for the future 

 progeny. Spiders are sometimes captured and immured for this purpose. In many 

 instances the captured insects are stung to death before they are placed in the burrow, 

 but it is often found that they only receive a wound sufficient to paralyse them, so that 

 they lead a semi-torpid life until they are killed and eaten by the young grub. Two of 

 these Sand Wasps are given in the illustration. That on the left is one of the wood- 

 borers, drilling its burrow into posts, palings, and similar substances, and feeds its young 

 with the larvae of one of the leaf-rolling caterpillars that lives in the oak, and is 

 scientifically known by the name of Tortrix chlordna. It also employs for this purpose 

 several two-winged insects. One species of these burrowing wasps prefers the well-known 

 cuckoo-spit insect for this purpose (Aphrdphora spumdrid), pulling it out of its frothy bed 

 by means of its long legs. 



The right-hand figure represents a species that is in the habit of provisioning its 

 burrow with the hive-bee, which it contrives to master in spite of the formidable weapon 

 possessed by its victim, and then murders or paralyses by means of its sting. M. Latreillo 

 mentioned that he saw from fifty to sixty of these insects busily engaged in burrowing 

 into a sandbank not more than forty yards long ; and as each female lays five or six eggs, 

 and deposits a bee with each egg, the havoc made among the hives is by no means 

 inconsiderable. 



Montdula. signata. PompUus n6bili* Scdlia pratdrum. 



IN the accompanying illustration is shown a Brazilian species, belonging to a genus 

 which is represented in England by more than twenty species. In these insects the legs 

 are very long and spider-like, enabling their owners to run about among grass with great 

 vivacity, their wings quivering all the while with violent agitation. Some of the species 

 are in the habit of catching spiders, and provisioning the burrows with them. It is 

 worthy of notice, that the largest specimens of Hymenoptera are to be found in exotic 

 insects belonging to this family, the genus Pepsis being most remarkable for the great 

 dimensions of its members. 



The right-hand figure represents an insect which, though common in Southern Europe, 

 has not yet been satisfactorily proved to be an inhabitant of England. Judging by the 

 habits of those species which have been studied, the whole of the family to which 

 it belongs are sand-burrowers, and seem to be cruelly predacious, mastering insects 

 of considerable size, and dragging them into their burrows. One of these insects (Scdlia 

 btctncta) has been known to capture and inter a large locust, the tunnel being some 

 eighteen inches in depth and very wide at the mouth. 



