x flies whom I now see fussing about.

A little reassured by this conjecture, I take my stand at the foot
of the rock, under a broiling sun; and, for half a day, I follow the
evolutions of my flies. They flit quietly in front of the slope, at a
few inches from the earthy covering. They go from one orifice to the
next, but without even penetrating. For that matter, their big wings,
extended crosswise even when at rest, would resist their entrance into a
gallery, which is too narrow to admit those spreading sails. And so they
explore the cliff, going to and fro and up and down, with a flight that
is now sudden, now smooth and slow. From time to time, I see the Anthrax
quickly approach the wall and lower her abdomen as though to touch the
earth with the end of her ovipositor. This proceeding takes no longer
than the twinkling of an eye. When it is done, the insect alights
elsewhere and rests. Then it resumes its sober flight, its long
investigations and its sudden blows with the tip of its belly against
the layer of earth. The Bombylii [bee flies] observe similar tactics
when soaring at a short height above the ground.

I at once rushed to the spot touched, lens in hand, in the hope of
finding the egg which everything told me was laid during that tap of the
abdomen. I could distinguish nothing, in spite of the closest attention.
It is true that my exhaustion, together with the blinding light and
scorching heat, made examination very difficult. Afterwards, when I made
the acquaintance of the tiny thing that issues from that egg, my failure
no longer surprised me. In the leisure of my study, with my eyes rested
and with my most powerful glasses held in a hand no longer shaking with
excitement and fatigue, I have the very greatest difficulty in finding
the infinitesimal creature, though I know exactly where it lies. Then
how could I see the egg, worn out as I was under the sun-baked cliff,
how discover the precise spot of a laying performed in a moment by an
insect seen only at a distance? In the painful conditions wherein I
found myself, failure was inevitable.

Despite my negative attempts, therefore, I remain convinced that the
Anthrax flies strew their eggs one by one, on the spots frequented by
those bees who suit their grubs. Each of their sudden strokes with the
tip of the abdomen represents a laying. They take no precaution to place
the germ under cover; for that matter, any such precaution would be
rendered impossi