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Dufour, another solitary, who retired to his province, in the depth of the Landes, was above all a descriptive anatomist, and he limited himself to an inventory of the nest of a Cerceris. For him the Buprestes were dead, and their state of preservation was explained simply as a kind of embalming, due to some special action of the venom of the Hymenoptera.
It is not possible to ascertain the chronological order of a laying, except by going to suitably-chosen species. Digging up the burrows of Cerceris-, Bembex- or Philanthus-wasps will never tell us that this grub has taken precedence of that in point of time nor enable us to decide whether one cocoon in a colony belongs to the same family as another.
Such, to my knowledge, are the Philanthus coronatus, Fabr., which stores its burrows with the large Halictus; the Philanthus raptor, Lep., which chases all the smaller Halictus indifferently, being itself a small insect; the Cerceris ornata, Fabr., which also kills Halictus; and the Polaris flavipes, Fabr., which by a strange eclecticism fills its cells with specimens of most of the Hymenoptera which are not beyond its powers.
On the other hand, he demonstrated the comparative innocuousness of the venom of these wasps, some of which, like the great Cerceris or the beautiful and formidable Scolia, alarm by their enormous size and their terrifying aspect; so that the conservation of the prey could not be due to any occult quality, to some more or less active antiseptic virtue of the venomous fluid, but simply to the precision of the stab and the miraculous deftness of the "surgeon."
If every species has its law; if the Geotrupes remain faithful to filth, although experience shows that they can accommodate themselves equally well to the putrefaction of decayed leaves; if the predatory species the Cerceris, the Sphex, the Ammophila resort only to one species of quarry to nourish their larvae, although these same larvae accept all indifferently, it is on account of those superior economic laws and secret alliances the profound reasons for which as a rule escape us or are beyond the scope of our theories.
Will the digesting of a ragout of little birds, however often repeated by him or his ascendants, suffice to make him a finished bird-catcher? The Cerceris has eaten Weevil; her ancestors have all eaten Weevil, religiously.
Despite its fantastic appearance, the Devilkin is instantly recognized by the Tachytes as a Mantid and therefore as game falling within her scope. In exchange for her Cleonus, give to the Great Cerceris a Buprestis, the delight of one of her near kinsfolk. She will have nothing to say to the sumptuous dish. Accept that! She, a Weevil-eater! Never in this world!
Again, M. Paul Marchal, taking up the study of instinct in the Cerceris ornata, has shown that in this species at least of Sphegidæ the stings have not so considerable an effect. This insect attacks a wild bee, the Halictus.
A slight displacement, caused by the effort of the insects' backs, is all that can possibly be effected. Ammophila and Cerceris, Sphex and Pompilus excavate their burrows wherever they please; they carry their prey on the wing, or, if too heavy, drag it afoot. The Necrophorus knows no such facilities in his task.
The remainder of my observations on these insects under glass is little more than a long series of failures. Her tactical method, as I expected, is precisely that of the Cleonus-huntress, the Great Cerceris, with whom my investigations commenced.
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