the Sandy Cerceris (C. arenaria), persistently scorned the victims
offered; the other, Ferrero's Cerceris (C. Ferreri), allowed herself to
be empted after two days' captivity. Her tactical method, as I expected,
is precisely that of the Cleonus-huntress, the Great Cerceris, with whom
my investigations commenced. When confronted with the Acorn-weevil, she
seizes the insect by the snout, which is immensely long and shaped
like a pipe-stem, and plants her sting in its body to the rear of the
prothorax, between the first and second pair of legs. It is needless to
insist: the spoiler of the Cleoni has taught us enough about this mode
of operation and its results.

None of the Bembex-wasps, whether chosen among the huntresses of
the Gadfly or among the lovers of the House-fly rabble, satisfied my
aspirations. Their method is as unknown to me now as at the distant
period when I used to watch it in the Bois des Issards. (Cf. "The
Hunting Wasps": chapters 14 to 18.--Translator's Note.) Their impetuous
flight, their love of long journeys are incompatible with captivity.
Stunned by colliding with the walls of their glass or wire-gauze prison,
they all perish within twenty-four hours. Swifter in their movements
and apparently satisfied with their honeyed thistle-heads, the Spheges,
huntresses of Crickets or Ephippigers, die as quickly of nostalgia. All
I offer them leaves them indifferent.

Nor can I get anything out of the Eumenes, notably the biggest of them,
the builder of gravel cupolas, Amedeus' Eumenes. All the Pompili, except
the Harlequin Calicurgus, refuse my Spiders. The Palarus, who preys upon
an indefinite number of the Hymenopteron clan, refuses to tell me if she
drinks the honey of the Bees, as does the Philanthus, or if she lets the
others go without manipulating them to make them disgorge. The Tachytes
do not vouchsafe their Locusts a glance; Stizus ruficornis promptly
gives up the ghost, disdaining the Praying Mantis which I provide for
her.

What is the use of continuing this list of checks? The rule may
be gathered from these few examples: occasional successes and many
failures. What can be the reason? With the exception of the Philanthus,
tempted from time to time by a bumper of honey, the predatory Wasps do
not hunt on their own account; they have their victualling-time, when
the egg-laying is imminent, when the family calls for food. Outside
these periods, the finest heads of game might well leave these
ne