516 THE SPHEGES SAND-WASP. 



even sometimes are enabled to transform themselves into chrysalidn. 

 "A friend of mine," says Dr. Derham, "put about forty large caterpil- 

 lars, collected from cabbages, on some bran and a few leaves, into a 

 box and covered it with gauze to prevent their escape. After a few 

 days we saw from more than three-fourths of them, about eight or ten 

 little caterpillars of the Ichneumon fly come out of their backs, and 

 spin each a small cocoon of silk, and in a few days the large caterpil- 

 lars died." The Ichneumons performed singular service, in the yeara 

 1731 and 1732, by multiplying in the same proportion as the cater- 

 pillars. Their larvae consequently destroyed infinitely more of these 

 voracious creatures than could possibly have been done by all the 

 efforts of human industry. Aphides, or Plant-lice, and the larvae 

 of various other insects, are also made the nidus of the Ichneumon. 



OF THE SPHEGES. 



THE antennae in this tribe consist of ten joints or articulations ; and 

 the mouth is armed with jaws. The wings in both sexes are extended, 

 and do not fold together. The sting is pungent, and concealed within 

 the abdomen. 



Many species of Sphex are common, in England. They are chiefly 

 found in woods and hedges; and their larvae feed on dead insects, in 

 the bodies of which the parent Spheges lay their eggs. 



Some of the species, like Dogs, dig holes in the earth with their 

 fore-feet, and in each of these, after having deposited their eggs in its 

 body, they bury an insect, and then carefully close it up with earth. 



There are no insects, which display greater affection for their off 

 Bpring than these ; nor are any more rapacious. They are excessively 

 fierce, and, without hesitation, attack insects much larger than them- 

 selves. Their strength is very great ; their jaws are hard and sharp, 

 and their stings are armed with poison, which suddenly proves fatal 

 to most of the creatures with which they engage. The Sphex seizes, 

 with the greatest boldness, on the creature it attacks, giving a stroke 

 with amazing force, then falling off, to rest from the fatigue of the 

 exertion, and to enjoy the victory. It keeps, however, a steady 

 eye on the object it has struck, until it dies, and then drags it to its 

 nest for the use of its young. The number of insects, which thia 

 creature destroys, is almost beyond conception, fifty scarcely serving 

 it for a meal. The mangled remains of its prey, scattered round the 

 mouth of its retreat, sufficiently betray the sanguinary inhabitant 

 The eyes, the filament that serves as a brain, and a small part of the 

 contents of the body, are all that the Sphex devours. 



OF THE SAND-WASP TRIBE. 



THE beak is conical, inflected, and contains a retractile, tubular 

 tongue, that is cleft at the end. The jaws form a kind of forceps, and 

 are three-toothed at the tip; and the antennae in each sex are thread 



