us line, a beading of crumbled soil, roughly the width of my
finger. From this line of ramifications (others) shoot out to left and
right, much shorter and irregularly distributed. One need not be a great
entomological scholar to recognize, at the first glance, in these pads
of raised earth, the trail of a Mole-cricket, the Mole among insects. It
is the Mole-cricket who, seeking for a root to suit her, has excavated
the winding tunnel, with investigation-galleries grafted to either side
of the main road. The passage is free therefore, or at most blocked by a
few landslips, of which the Tachytes will easily dispose. This explains
her rapid journey underground.

But what does she do there? For she is always there, in the few
observations which chance affords me. A subterranean excursion would not
attract the Wasp if it had no object. And its object is certainly the
search for some sort of game for her larvae. The inference becomes
inevitable: the Anathema Tachytes, who explores the Mole-cricket's
galleries, gives her larvae this same Mole-cricket as their food. Very
probably the specimen selected is a young one, for the adult insect
would be too big. Besides, to this consideration of quantity is added
that of quality. Young and tender flesh is highly appreciated, as
witness the Tarsal Tachytes, the Black Tachytes and the Mantis-killing
Tachytes, who all three select game that is not yet made tough by age.
It goes without saying that the moment the huntress emerged from the
ground I proceeded to dig up the track. The Mole-cricket was no longer
there. The Tachytes had come too late; and so had I.

Well, how right was I to define the Tachytes as a Locust lover! What
constancy in the gastronomic rules of the race! And what tact in varying
the game, while keeping within the order of the Orthoptera! What have
the Locust, the Cricket, the Praying Mantis and the Mole-cricket in
common, as regards their general appearance? Why, absolutely nothing!
None of us, if he were unfamiliar with the delicate associations
dictated by anatomy, would think of classing them together. The
Tachytes, on the other hand, makes no mistake. Guided by her instinct,
which rivals the science of a Latreille, she groups them all
together. (Pierre Andre Latreille (1762-1833), one of the founders of
entomological science, a professor at the Musee d'histoire naturelle and
member of the Academie des sciences.--Translator's Note.)

This instinctive taxonomy b