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Updated: June 19, 2025
Darwin knew barely the tenth part of the colossal work of Fabre. He had read firstly in the "Annals of Natural Science" of the habits of the Cerceris and the fabulous history of the Meloidae. Finally he saw the first volume of the "Souvenirs" appear, and was interested in the highest degree by the beautiful study on the sense of location and direction in the Mason- bees.
It was thus that I reared the Tarsal Bembex, which eats Anthrax-flies and other Diptera, on young Locustidae or Mantidae; the Silky Ammophila, whose diet consists chiefly of Measuring-worms, on small Spiders; the pot-making Pelopaeus, a Spider-eater, on tender Acridians; the Sand Cerceris, a passionate lover of Weevils, on Halicti; the Bee-eating Philanthus, which feeds exclusively on Hive-bees, on Eristales and other Flies.
Well, I found that logic and experiment were in perfect agreement. The Philanthus-cocoons with two Bees gave me males, always males; those with a larger ration gave me females. From the Tachytes-cocoons with double or treble that ration I obtained females. When fed upon four or five Nut-weevils, the Sand Cerceris was a male; when fed upon eight or ten, a female.
Well, how can this multitude of varied instincts teach us anything about gradual transformation? Will the one and only dagger-thrust of the Cerceris and the Scolia take us to the two thrusts of the Calicurgus, to the three thrusts of the Sphex, to the manifold thrust of the Ammophila? Yes, if we consider only numerical progression. One and one are two; two and one are three: so run the figures.
To paralyse without killing, "to deliver the prey to the larvae inert but living": that is the end to be attained; only the method varies according to the species of the hunter and the structure of the prey; thus the Cerceris, which attacks the coleoptera, and the Scolia, which preys upon the larvae of the rose-beetle, sting them only once and in a single place, because there is concentrated the mass of the motor ganglions.
In a word, the victims of Cerceris, far from being desiccated or putrefied, were found in a state of integrity which was altogether paradoxical. Dufour merely believed that the Buprestes were dead, and he gave an attempted explanation of the phenomenon.
The glittering cuirass of the Rhynchites goes to take its place beside the grey cloak of the Phynotomus. No, it is not the colour that guides the choice. Neither is it the shape. Cerceris arenaria hunts any medium-sized Weevil. I should be putting the reader's patience to too great a test if I attempted to give in this place a complete inventory of the specimens identified in her larder.
If these two species are to seek, if the burrows are far from the holm-oaks, the Cerceris will attack Weevils displaying the greatest variety of genus, species, form and coloration, levying tribute indifferently on Sitones, Cneorhini, Geonemi, Otiorhynchi, Strophosomi and many others.
Is it the colouring? Not at all. There is no lack of instances. What a variety of hues and metallic reflections, distributed in a host of different fashions, appear in the Buprestes that are hunted by the Cerceris celebrated by Leon Dufour. He attained great eminence as a naturalist. Cf. "The Hunting Wasps": chapter 1; also "The Life of the Spider": chapter 1.
A wild bee, the Chalicodoma, and a wasp, the Cerceris, carried in the dark far from their familiar pastures, to a distance of several miles, and released in spots which they have never seen, cross vast and unknown spaces with absolute certainty, and regain their nests; even after long absence, and in spite of contrary winds and the most unexpected obstacles.
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