g during the fierce days of summer.
Then come the short but pleasant days of autumn, the retreat underground
and the winter torpor, the awakening of spring, and finally the cycle is
closed by the festival of pellet-making.

One word more as to the fertility of the Sisyphus. My six couples under
the wire-gauze cover furnished me with fifty-seven inhabited pellets.
This gives an average of more than nine to each couple; a figure which
the _Scarabaeus sacer_ is far from attaining. To what should we attribute
this superior fertility? I can only see one cause: the fact that the
male works as valiantly as the female. Family cares too great for the
strength of one are not too heavy when there are two to support them.

CHAPTER XIII

A BEE-HUNTER: THE _PHILANTHUS AVIPORUS_

To encounter among the Hymenoptera, those ardent lovers of flowers, a
species which goes a-hunting on its own account is, to say the least of
it, astonishing. That the larder of the larvae should be provisioned with
captured prey is natural enough; but that the provider, whose diet is
honey, should itself devour its captives is a fact both unexpected and
difficult to comprehend. We are surprised that a drinker of nectar
should become a drinker of blood. But our surprise abates if we consider
the matter closely. The double diet is more apparent than real; the
stomach which fills itself with the nectar of flowers does not gorge
itself with flesh. When she perforates the rump of her victim the
Odynerus does not touch the flesh, which is a diet absolutely contrary
to her tastes; she confines herself to drinking the defensive liquid
which the grub distils at the end of its intestine. For her this liquid
is doubtless a beverage of delicious flavour, with which she relieves
from time to time her staple diet of the honey distilled by flowers,
some highly spiced condiment, appetiser or aperient, or perhaps--who
knows?--a substitute for honey. Although the qualities of the liquid
escape me, I see at least that Odynerus cares nothing for the rest.
Once the pouch is emptied the larva is abandoned as useless offal, a
certain sign of non-carnivorous appetites. Under these conditions the
persecutor of Chrysomela can no longer be regarded as guilty of an
unnatural double dietary.

We may even wonder whether other species also are not apt to draw some
direct profit from the hunting imposed upon them by the needs of the
family. The procedure of Odynerus in opening