224 
TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
with their habits and methods of life. There is a sub-family of 
them called the Bembecidce , and they are insects which have a 
large body, a very distinct lip, and pointed mandibles which 
have one tooth on their inner margin. The species of the genus 
Bembex are remarkable for the great length of their jaws, and 
their lower lip is formed into a sort of trunk, and they may be 
seen sucking up honey with it from flowers. Bembex rostrata 
is the commonest of them, and it digs deep, cell-like holes in the 
sand, and victuals them with flies and Diptera of all kinds ; it 
then lays its eggs, and closes the orifice of its cell with that great 
care which has already been noticed amongst the Sphegidce. The 
examples we have offered showing the habits of the fossorial 
Hymenoptera have a certain sameness, for in every instance the 
female builds the nest, fills each cell with victims for the future 
larva, lays an egg close by them, and shuts up the habitation, 
and then dies without ever seeing its progeny. 
But M. Fabre, of Avignon, has described the habits of Bembex 
vidua , which are certainly most remarkable and suggestive, and 
probably very rare, in the history of the Hymenoptera. In this 
species the female does not close up the cell, but penetrates into 
it every day, carrying in a fresh victim for the larva; and it 
always chooses a fly. Here is a case of a female insect caring 
for its larva which it sees, and which it notices to eat and care 
for food, so that the daily visit becomes a pleasure and a duty, 
according to the usual law of maternity. Of course the larvae of 
this species run great risks, for their cells remain unclosed, and 
carnivorous insects may enter in and destroy them. Moreover, 
the mother may be taken and killed herself, and then, as no food 
would be forthcoming, they would die from starvation. There 
is no doubt that the habits of this species cast a light upon those 
of the insects which only provide one store of provisions, and 
then close their nests ; for it is not difficult to imagine that if 
the egg of a former Bembex vidua , the predecessor of all these, 
should not happen to have hatched at the second visit of the 
mother, she would have closed the hole and left it uncared for, 
not seeing the use of troubling herself to no purpose. 
Cerceris arenaria is a species of the tribe of the Crabronidce , 
its members are very common in Europe, and have been 
