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"Here we starts out ter hunt fo' dat Dr. Todd's chrysomela bypunktater plant, an' we don't find it, but nothin' but trouble lashin's ob trouble! I'se nigh erbout descouraged ober de perfesser. He suah do lead us all inter sech tribbilations. I done lose heart 'bout him." "Oh, I wouldn't," said Jack. "The professor can't help it if an old volcano comes along and blows us off the earth.
So much is plain: in a state of freedom, when occasion offers, the Philanthus must kill on her own account as she does in captivity. The Odynerus asks nothing of the Chrysomela but a simple condiment, the aromatic juice of the anal pouch; the Philanthus demands a full diet, or at least a notable supplement thereto, in the form of the contents of the stomach.
The short-legged Beetles, trotting along with tiny steps, ought, one would think, to make up in cunning, more fully than the others, for their incapacity for rapid flight. The facts do not correspond with this apparently well-founded forecast. I have consulted the genera Chrysomela, Blatta, Silpha, Cleonus, Bolboceras, Cetonia, Hoplia, Coccinella, and so on.
Once the pouch is emptied the larva is abandoned as useless offal, a certain sign of non-carnivorous appetites. Under these conditions the persecutor of Chrysomela can no longer be regarded as guilty of an unnatural double dietary. We may even wonder whether other species also are not apt to draw some direct profit from the hunting imposed upon them by the needs of the family.
Though the qualities of the delicacy escape me, I at least perceive that the Odynerus does not covet anything else. Once its jar is emptied, the larva is flung aside as worthless offal, a certain sign of a non-carnivorous appetite. Under these conditions, the persecutor of the Chrysomela ceases to surprise us by indulging in the crying abuse of a double diet.
Among such larvæ I have experimented with those provided by chance those of various Bembeces, fed on Diptera; those of the Palaris, whose diet consists of a large variety of Hymenoptera; those of the Tachytus, provided with young crickets; those of the Odynerus, fed upon larvæ of the Chrysomela; those of the sand-dwelling Cerceris, endowed with a hecatomb of weevils.
It is as plain as a pikestaff: outside my cages, when the opportunity offers, the Philanthus must also kill the Bee on her own account. The Odynerus asks nothing from the Chrysomela but a mere condiment, the aromatic juice of the rump; the other extracts from her victim an ample supplement to her victuals, the crop full of honey.
There still remain to be mentioned a Chrysomela, like the pyritosa, and a Coccinella with five very large spots upon both wing-covers, found on the line of perpetual snow on the volcano.
"Lawsy-massy!" gasped Wash. "Do yo' mean ter tell me dat we ain't gwine ter fin' dat chrysomela bypunktater plant after all? What fo' did we come away off here on dis floatin' islan' if we ain't gwine ter git dat specimen of botanical horrorforbilicalness?
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