skin of a larva, also a Lamellicorn, but not the same as the
one hunted by the first Scolia. And this was all. Now here, now there,
I shifted a few cubic yards of soil, without managing to find fresh
provisions with the egg or the young larva. And yet it was the right
season, the egg-laying season, for the males, numerous at the outset,
had grown rarer day by day until they disappeared entirely. My lack of
success was due to the uncertainty of my excavations, in which I had
nothing to guide me over the indefinite area covered.

If I could at least identify the Scarabaeidae whose larvae form the
prey of the two Scoliae, the problem would be half solved. Let us try.
I collect all that the luchet has turned up: larvae, nymphs and adult
Beetles. My booty comprises two species of Lamellicorns: Anoxia villosa
and Euchlora Julii, both of whom I find in the perfect state, usually
dead, but sometimes alive. I obtain a few of their nymphs, a great piece
of luck, for the larval skin which accompanies them will serve me as a
standard of comparison. I come upon plenty of larvae, of all ages.
When I compare them with the cast garment abandoned by the nymphs, I
recognize some as belonging to the Anoxia and the rest to the Euchlora.

With these data, I perceive with absolute certainty that the empty skin
adhering to the cocoon of the Interrupted Scolia belongs to the Anoxia.
As for the Euchlora, she is not involved in the problem: the larva
hunted by the Two-banded Scolia does not belong to her any more than it
belongs to the Anoxia. Then with which Scarabaeid does the empty skin
which is still unknown to me correspond? The Lamellicorn whom I am
seeking must exist in the ground which I have been exploring, because
the Two-banded Scolia has established herself there. Later--oh, very
long afterwards!--I recognized where my search was at fault. In order
not to find a network of roots beneath my luchet and to render the work
of excavation lighter, I was digging the bare places, at some distance
from the thickets of holm-oak; and it was just in those thickets, which
are rich in vegetable mould, that I should have sought. There, near the
old stumps, in the soil consisting of dead leaves and rotting wood, I
should certainly have come upon the larva so greatly desired, as will be
proved by what I have still to say.

Here ends what my earlier investigations taught me. There is reason to
believe that the Bois des Issards would never have furnis