Those larvae must be rejected which are
nourished upon one single corpulent insect, as is that of the Scolia.
The grub attacks its prey at a determined point, plunges its head and
neck into the body of the insect, skilfully divides the entrails in
order to keep the remains fresh until its meal is ended, and does not
emerge from the opening until all is consumed but the empty skin.

To interrupt the larva with the object of smearing the interior of its
prey with honey is doubly objectionable; I might extinguish the
lingering vitality which keeps putrefaction at bay in the victim, and I
might confuse the delicate art of the larva, which might not be able to
recover the lode at which it was working or to distinguish between those
parts which are lawfully and properly eaten and those which must not be
consumed until a later period. As I have shown in a previous volume, the
grub of the Scolia has taught me much in this respect. The only larvae
acceptable for this experiment are those which are fed on a number of
small insects, which are attacked without any special art, dismembered
at random, and quickly consumed. Among such larvae I have experimented
with those provided by chance--those of various Bembeces, fed on
Diptera; those of the Palaris, whose diet consists of a large variety of
Hymenoptera; those of the Tachytus, provided with young crickets; those
of the Odynerus, fed upon larvae of the Chrysomela; those of the
sand-dwelling Cerceris, endowed with a hecatomb of weevils. As will be
seen, both consumers and consumed offer plenty of variety. Well, in
every case their proper diet, seasoned with honey, is fatal. Whether
poisoned or disgusted, they all die in a few days.

A strange result! Honey, the nectar of the flowers, the sole diet of the
apiary under its two forms and the sole nourishment of the predatory
insect in its adult phase, is for the larva of the same insect an object
of insurmountable disgust, and probably a poison. The transfiguration of
the chrysalis surprises me less than this inversion of the appetite.
What change occurs in the stomach of the insect that the adult should
passionately seek that which the larva refuses under peril of death? It
is no question of organic debility unable to support a diet too
substantial, too hard, or too highly spiced. The grubs which consume the
larva of the Cetoniae, for example (the Rose-chafers), those which feed
upon the leathery cricket, and those whose diet is ric