SPHEX. 57 



some particular affection. The insect chooses 

 a dry and sandy situation exposed to the sun, 

 where it forms a nest for the preservation of its 

 posterity. In digging the hole the Sphex uses 

 its mouth and feet, carrying away with its teeth 

 the grains of sand, and throwing to a distance 

 the particles of earth with its hind-feet, which 

 are then in continual motion, and resemble 

 the action of a hen while scratching the ground 

 in a hot summer day. With great labour the 

 insect at length makes a hole some inches deep, 

 and carried in an oblique direction from the 

 surface of the ground. This operation may be 

 easily watched, as the nest is generally formed 

 by the way-side. When the business is com- 

 pleted, the female seeks for a spider or cater- 

 pillar, which it kills with its sting, and having 

 dragged it into its hole, deposits an egg in the 

 body. The mouth of the nest is then carefully 

 closed by the insect with earth, and the larva 

 thus provided with food till the time of its 

 change. 



The female of the American Sphex, Sphex 



