CHAPTER XII. 



A !N0BLE WASP. 



(Monedula punctata.) 



Naturalists, like kings and emperors, have their 

 favourites, and as my zoological sympathies, which 

 are wider than my knowledge, embrace all classes 

 of beings, there are of course several insects for 

 which I have a special regard ; a few in each of 

 the principal orders. My chief favourite among 

 the hymen opteras is the one representative of the 

 curious genUs Monedula known in La Plata. It is 

 handsome and has original habits, but it is specially 

 interesting to me for another reason : I can re- 

 member the time when it was extremely rare on 

 the pampas, so rare that in boyhood the sight of 

 one used to be a great event to me ; and I have 

 watched its rapid increase year by year till it has 

 come to be one of our commonest species. Its 

 singular habits and intelligence give it a still better 

 claim to notice. It is a big, showy, loud-buzzing 

 insect, with pink head and legs, wings with brown 

 reflections, and body encircled with alternate bands 

 of black and pale gold, and has a preference for 

 large composite flowers, on the honey of which it 

 feeds. Its young is, however, an insect-eater ; but 

 the Monedula does not, like other burrowing or 



