148 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



dozen Motuca flies may often be seen clustering upon the ankle, 

 just above the shoe. 



The Monedula destroys multitudes of the Motuca flies, and 

 will travel for half a mile in order to procure its prey, always 

 taking care to close the entrance of its burrow, and to reopen it 

 on its return. Mr. Bates mentions that he has been frequently 

 indebted to the Monedula for saving him from sundry gashes 

 from the Motuca ; and that the Monedula would charge straight 

 towards his face or neck, pick up a Motuca as it was about to 

 settle, and fly off with it. The fly was not captured with the 

 jaws, but seized in the first and second pairs of feet. 



The other burrower is that which is known to entomologists 

 as Sembcx ciliata, and is remarkable for the eager assiduity 

 with which it plies its labour of love. In colour, it is shining 

 green ; and when it has fixed upon a suitable spot for its burrow, 

 it scratches away the sandy soil with such furious haste, that a 

 nearly continuous fountain of sand is thrown up behind it. 

 Even after it has penetrated for two or three inches into the 

 ground, the sandy stream issues from the orifice, propelled as if 

 by a miniature engine, and being flung under the body by means 

 of the powerful fore-feet with their bristly armature. 



When it has completed its tunnel, which is always driven in 

 a slanting direction, and from two to three inches in depth, it 

 emerges from the orifice, walks about for a time, as if to take 

 bearings of the locality, and then darts off and is lost to sight. 

 After a while it returns, bringing in its grasp a fly, which is 

 destined to be the food of the young Bembex. Only one fly is 

 placed in each tunnel, and then the entrance is carefully stopped 

 up with sand, so that it cannot be distinguished from the sur- 

 rounding soil. It is a remarkable fact that, however many nests 

 may be made in a sand-bank, and however closely they may be 

 set, the insect which dug them never mistakes another dweUing 

 for its own, and always flies directly to the spot which it has 

 selected as the cradle of its posthumous offspring. 



Although the ants have been postponed to a future page, a 

 few words must be given to the insect whose nest wiU be seen 

 on the right hand of the plate. 



This insect is the Formica compressa of India. Now and then, 

 the nest of this species is above ground, and is made of mud. 



