Insect Adventures

ened to the body as though by a thread; black raiment with a red sash across the belly:

together with a little clay and lime. Edges of paths, sunny banks where the grass is rather bar

yous enthusiasm. As usual, the front feet serve as rakes and the jaws do duty as mining-tools. When some grain of sand is very hard to remove, you hear rising from the well a sort of shrill grating sound made by the quivering of the insec

ghborhood until she finds what she wants, a small flat stone a little larger in diameter than the mouth of her hole. She carries off this slab in her jaws and lays it, as a temporary door, over the opening of the burrow. To-morrow, when she comes back from hunting, the Wasp will know how to find her home, made safe by this heavy door; she will bring back a paraly

from a walk when I saw a Hairy Sand-Wasp very busy at the foot of a tuft of thyme. I at once lay down on the ground, close to where she was working. My presence did not frighten the Wasp; in fact, she came and settle

er head under the little clods which she had lifted. She ran hurriedly this way and that around the thyme, looking at every crevice. S

in of his neck and holding tight in spite of his contortions. Perched on the monster's back, the Wasp bent her abdomen and deliberately, without hurrying, like a clever surgeon, drove her lancet-sting into the

r victim's nervous system and exactly what nerve centers to strike to make it motionless without killing it. Where does

ake to her burrow, on the smooth, hard path. She had paralyzed her Caterpillar, probably, and left it a few yards away from the home while she made ready the entr

scorns it. She will not have anything to do with a Worm which she must share with Ants. To drive them away is impossible; for each one sent to t

lashes the ground continually with her antenn? curved like a bow. For nearly three hours, in the heat of the sun

e a plan. I wish to give the Wasp a Wo

friend, is there, garde

ick; I want so

of the lettuces, he scrapes among the strawberry-beds, he inspects the iris-borders. I know

? Where's tha

find on

, you others! Claire, Aglaé, all

ecome very active. But nothing turns up: three hou

iven up, however. Then a suspicion comes to me: perhaps the Gray Worm, foreseeing a gathering storm, has dug its way lower down. The huntress Wasp very well knows where it lies, but cannot get it out from its deep hiding-place. Wherever the Sand-Wasp scratches,

, as it has already done with so many others. I myself continue the work, with the blade of a knife. I do not find anything,

ow!" the Wasp seems to say. "I'll

Worm. Well done, my clever Sand-Wasp! Did I not say

nths earlier. There is absolutely nothing to show the presence of the Caterpillar from without. Well, Favier, Claire, Aglaé, and the rest of you, what have you to say? In three h

AT

mbered paragraphs the various acts of the gorgeous drama that passes before my eyes

he Wasp is quite unconcerned: she stands aside and thus avoids the shocks. Her sting strikes the Caterpillar at the joint between the first ring and the head, in the mid

rgeous

afraid that the huntress has received a nasty wound in the contest. I am overcome with emotion at seeing the plucky Wasp finish so piteously. But suddenly the Wasp recovers, smooths her wings, curls her ante

he back a little lower down, clasping it with the jaws, those wide pincers, and each time driving the sting into the next ring. In this way are wounded the first three rings, with the true legs; the next two rings, w

s of leisurely movements, without creating a wound. She pauses after each squeezing as if to learn the effect produced; she stops, waits, and begins ag

egg, it will have the Caterpillar to feed upon. But suppose this Caterpillar were active? One movement of his body would crush the egg against the wall of the cell. No, the Caterpillar must be motionless; but it must not be dead, for if it were, it would speedily decay and be unfit eating for the fastidious little grub. The Wasp, therefore, drives her poisoned sting into the nerve-centers of every segment whose movement could hurt the grub-baby.

climb to the surface at night and gnaw the base or collar of plants. Everything suits them: ornamental plants and edible plants alike, flower-beds, market-gardens, and plants in fields. When a seedling withers without apparent cause, draw it to you gently; and the dying plant will come up, but maimed, cut from its ro