other
game-hunters behave when the Tachina is at their heels seeking the
chance to lay her egg on the morsel about to be stored away. Without
jostling the parasite which they find hanging around the burrow, they
go indoors quite peaceably; but, on the wing, perceiving her after them,
they dart off wildly. The Tachina, however, dares not go down to the
cells where the huntress stacks her provisions; she prudently waits at
the door for the Philanthus to arrive. The crime, the laying of the
egg, is committed at the very moment when the victim is about to vanish
underground.

The troubles of the parasite of the Halictus are of quite another
kind. The homing Bee has her honey in her crop and her pollen on her
leg-brushes: the first is inaccessible to the thief; the second is
powdery and would give no resting-place to the egg. Besides, there is
not enough of it yet: to collect the wherewithal for that round loaf of
hers, the Bee will have to make repeated journeys. When the necessary
amount is obtained, she will knead it with the tip of her mandibles
and shape it with her feet into a little ball. The Gnat's egg, were it
present among the materials, would certainly be in danger during this
manipulation.

The alien egg, therefore, must be laid on the finished bread; and, as
the preparation takes place underground, the parasite is needs obliged
to go down to the Halictus. With inconceivable daring, she does go
down, even when the Bee is there. Whether through cowardice or silly
indulgence, the dispossessed insect lets the other have its way.

The object of the Gnat, with her tenacious lying-in-wait and her
reckless burglaries, is not to feed herself at the harvester's expense:
she could get her living out of the flowers with much less trouble
than her thieving trade involves. The most, I think, that she can allow
herself to do in the Halictus' cellars is to take one morsel just to
ascertain the quality of the victuals. Her great, her sole business is
to settle her family. The stolen goods are not for herself, but for her
offspring.

Let us dig up the pollen-loaves. We shall find them most often crumbled
with no regard to economy, simply frittered away. We shall see two or
three maggots, with pointed mouths, moving in the yellow flour scattered
over the floor of the cell. These are the Gnat's progeny. With them
we sometimes find the lawful owner, the grub-worm of the Halictus, but
stunted and emaciated with fasting. His glu