No idea of any scope can begin its soaring flight but straightway the
curmudgeons are after it, eager to break its wings and to stamp the
wounded thing under foot. My discovery of the surgical methods that give
the Hunting Wasps their preserved foodstuffs has undergone the common
rule. Let theories be discussed, by all means: the realm of the
imagination is an untilled domain, in which every one is free to plant
his own conceptions. But realities are not open to discussion. It is a
bad policy to deny facts with no more authority than one's wish to find
them untrue. No one that I know of has impugned by contrary observations
what I have so long been saying about the anatomical instinct of the
Wasps that hunt their prey; instead, I am met with arguments. Mercy on
us! First use your eyes and then you shall have leave to argue! And, to
persuade people to use their eyes, I mean to reply, since we have time
to spare, to the objections which have been or may be raised. Of course,
I pass over in silence those in which childish disparagement shows its
nose too plainly.
The sting, I am told, is directed at one point rather than another
because that is the only vulnerable point. The insect cannot choose what
wound it will inflict; it stings where it must. Its wonderful operative
method is the necessary result of the victim's structure. Let us first,
if we attach any importance to lucidity, come to an understanding about
the word "vulnerable." Do you mean by this that the point or rather
points wounded by the sting are the only points at which a lesion will
suddenly cause either death or paralysis? If so, I share your opinion;
not only do I share it, but I was the first to proclaim it. My whole
thesis is contained in that. Yes, a hundred times yes, the points
wounded are the only vulnerable points; they are even very vulnerable;
they are the only points which lend themselves to the infliction of
sudden death or else paralysis, according to the operator's intention.
But this is not how you understand the matter: you mean accessible to
the sting, in a word, penetrable. Here we part company. I have against
me, I admit, the Weevils and the Buprestes of the Cerceres. These mailed
ones hardly give the sting a chance, save behind the prothorax, the
point at which the lancet is actually directed. If I were one to stand
on trifles, I might observe that in front of the prothorax, under the
throat, is an accessible spot and that the Cerceres will have nothing to
do with it. But let us proceed; I give up the horn-clad Beetle.
What are we to say of the Grey Worm and other caterpillars beloved of
the Ammophilae? Here are victims accessible to the sting underneath, on
the back, on the sides, fore and aft, everywhere with the same facility,
excepting the top of the head. And of this infinity of points, which are
equally penetrable, the Wasp selects ten, always the same, differing
in no way from the rest, unless it be by the close proximity of the
nerve-centres. What are we to say of the Cetonia- and Anoxia-larvae,
which are always attacked in the first thoracic segment, after long
and painful struggles, when the assailant can sting the grub freely
at whatever point she chooses, since it is quite naked and offers no
greater resistance to the lancet at one point than at another?
What are we to think of the Sphex' Crickets and Ephippigers, stabbed
three times on the side of the thorax, which is fairly well defended,
whereas the abdomen, soft and bulky, into which the sting would sink
like a needle into a pat of butter, is neglected? Do not let us forget
the Philanthus, who takes no account either of the fissures beneath the
abdominal plates or of the wide hiatus behind the corselet, but plunges
her weapon, at the base of the throat, through a gap of a fraction of
a millimetre. Let us just mention the Mantis-hunting Tachytes. Does she
make for the most undefended point when she stabs, first of all, at its
base, the Mantis' dreadful engine--the arm-pieces each fitted with a
double saw--at the risk of being seized, transfixed and crunched on the
spot if she misses her blow? Why does she not strike at the creature's
long abdomen? That would be quite easy and free from danger.
And the Calicurgi, if you please. Are they also unskilled duelists,
plunging the dirk into the only easily accessible point, when their very
first move is to paralyse the poison-fangs? If there is one point about
the Tarantula and the Epeira that is dangerous and difficult to attack,
it is certainly the mouth which bites with its two poisoned harpoons.
And these desperadoes dare to brave that deadly trap! Why do they not
follow your judicious advice? They should sting the plump belly, which
is wholly unprotected. They do not; and they have their reasons, as have
the others.
All, from the first to the last, show us, clear as water from the rock,
that the outer structure of the victims operated on counts for nothing
in the method of operating. This is determined by the inner anatomy. The
points wounded are not stung because they are the only points penetrable
by the lancet; they are stung because they fulfil an important
condition, without which penetrability loses its value. This condition
is none other than the immediate proximity of the nerve-centres whose
influence has to be suppressed. When at close quarters with her prey,
whether soft or armour-clad, the huntress behaves as if she understood
the nervous system better than any of us. The thoughtless objection
about the only penetrable points is, I hope, swept aside forever.
I am also told:
"It is possible, if it comes to that, for the sting to be delivered in
the neighbourhood of the nerve-centres; in a victim at most three or
four centimetres long, distances are very small. But a casual there or
thereabouts is a very different thing from the precision of which you
speak."
Oh, they are "thereabouts," are they? We shall see! You want figures,
millimetres, fractions? You shall have them!
First I call to witness the Interrupted Scolia. If the reader no longer
has her method of operating in mind, I will beg him to refresh his
memory. The two adversaries, in the preliminary conflict, may be fairly
well represented by two rings interlocked not in the same plane but at
right angles. The Scolia grips a point of the Anoxia-grub's thorax; she
curves her body underneath it and, while encircling the grub, gropes
with the tip of her abdomen along the median line of the larva's neck.
Owing to her transversal position, the assailant is now free to aim her
weapon in a slightly slanting direction, whether towards the head or
towards the thorax, at the same point of entry in the larva's throat.
Between the two opposite slants of the sting, which is itself
very short, what can the distance be? Two millimetres (.078
inch.--Translator's Note.), perhaps less. That is very little. No
matter: let the operator make a mistake of this length--negligible, you
may tell me--let the sting slant towards the head instead of slanting
towards the thorax; and the result of the operation will be entirely
different. With a slant towards the head, the cerebral ganglia are
wounded and their lesion causes sudden death. This is the stroke of
the Philanthus, who kills her Bee by stinging her from below, under the
chin. The Scolia needed a motionless but not dead victim, one that would
supply fresh victuals; she will now have only a corpse, which will soon
go bad and poison the larva.
With a slant towards the thorax, the sting wounds the little mass of
nerve-cells in the thorax. This is the regulation stroke, the one which
will induce paralysis and leave the small amount of life needed to keep
the provisions fresh. A millimetre higher kills; a millimetre lower
paralyses. On this tiny deviation the salvation of the Scolia race
depends. You need not fear that the operator will make any mistake in
this micrometrical performance: her sting always slants towards the
thorax, although the opposite inclination is just as practicable and
easy. What would be the outcome of a there or thereabouts under these
conditions? Very often a corpse, a form of food fatal to the grub.
The Two-banded Scolia stings a little lower down, on the line of
demarcation between the first two thoracic segments. Her position is
likewise transversal in relation to the Cetonia-grub; but the distance
of the cervical ganglia from the point where the sting enters would
possibly not allow the weapon turned towards the head to inflict a
lesion followed by sudden death as in the above instance. I am calling
this witness with another object. It is extremely unusual for the
operator, no matter what her prey or her method, to make a slight
mistake and sting merely somewhere near the requisite point. I see them
all groping with the tip of the abdomen, sometimes seeking persistently,
before unsheathing. They thrust only when the point beneath the sting
is precisely that at which the wound will produce its full effect. The
Two-banded Scolia in particular will struggle with the Cetonia-grub for
half an hour at a time to enable herself to drive in the stiletto at the
right spot.
Wearied by an endless scuffle, one of my captives committed before my
eyes a slight blunder, an unprecedented thing. Her weapon entered a
little to one side, not quite a millimetre from the central point and
still, of course, on the line of demarcation between the first two
thoracic segments. I at once laid hold of the precious specimen, which
was to teach me curious matters about the effects of an ill-delivered
stroke. If I myself had made the insect sting at this or that point,
there would have been no particular interest in it: the Scolia, held
between the finger-tips, would wound at random, like a Bee defending
herself; her undirected sting would inject the poison at haphazard.
But here everything happened by rule, except for the little error of
position.
Well, the victim of this clumsy operation has its legs paralysed only on
the left side, the side towards which the weapon was deflected; it is
a case of hemiplegia. The legs on the right side move. If the operation
had been performed in the normal fashion the result would have been
sudden inertia of all six legs. The hemiplegia, it is true does not last
long. The torpor of the left half rapidly gains the right half of the
body and the creature lies motionless, incapable of burying itself in
the mould, without, however, realizing the conditions indispensable to
the safety of the egg or the young grub. If I seize one of its legs or
a point of the skin with the tweezers, it suddenly shrivels and curls
up and swells out again, as it does when in complete possession of its
energies. What would become of an egg laid on such victuals? At the
first closing of this ruthless vice, at the first contraction, it would
be crushed, or at least detached from its place; and any egg removed
from the point where the mother has fastened it is bound to perish. It
needs, on the Cetonia's abdomen, a yielding support which the bites of
the new-born larva will not set aquiver. The slightly eccentric sting
gives none of this soft mass of fat, always outstretched and quiescent.
Only on the following day, after the torpor has made progress, does the
larva become suitably inert and limp. But it is too late; and in the
meantime the egg would be in serious danger on this half-paralysed
victim. The sting, by straying less than a millimetre, would leave the
Scolia without progeny.
I promised fractions. Here they are. Let us consider the Tarantula and
the Epeira on whom the Calicurgi have just operated. The first thrust
of the sting is delivered in the mouth. In both victims the poison-fangs
are absolutely lifeless: tickling with a bit of straw never once
succeeds in making them open. On the other hand, the palpi, their very
near neighbours, their adjuncts as it were, possess their customary
mobility. Without any previous touches, they keep on moving for weeks.
In entering the mouth the sting did not reach the cervical ganglia,
or sudden death would have ensued and we should have before our eyes
corpses which would go bad in a few days, instead of fresh carcases
in which traces of life remain manifest for a long time. The cephalic
nerve-centres have been spared.
What is wounded then, to procure this profound inertia of the
poison-fangs? I regret that my anatomical knowledge leaves me undecided
on this point. Are the fangs actuated by a special ganglion? Are they
actuated by fibres issuing from centres exercising further functions? I
leave to anatomists equipped with more delicate instruments than I the
task of elucidating this obscure question. The second conjecture appears
to me the more probable, because of the palpi, whose nerves, it seems to
me, must have the same origin as those of the fangs. Basing our argument
on this latter hypothesis, we see that the Calicurgus has only one means
of suppressing the movement of the poisoned pincers without affecting
the mobility of the palpi, above all without injuring the cephalic
centres and thus producing death, namely, to reach with her sting the
two fibres actuating the fangs, fibres as fine as a hair.
I insist upon this point. Despite their extreme delicacy, these two
filaments must be injured directly; for, if it were enough for the sting
to inject its poison "there or thereabouts," the nerves of the palpi, so
close to the first, would undergo the same intoxication as the adjacent
region and would leave those appendages motionless. The palpi move;
they retain their mobility for a considerable period; the action of the
poison, therefore, is evidently situated in the nerves of the fangs.
There are two of these nerve-filaments, very fine, very difficult to
discover, even by the professional anatomist. The Calicurgus has
to reach them one after the other, to moisten them with her poison,
possibly to transfix them, in any case to operate upon them in a very
restricted manner; so that the diffusion of the virus may not involve
the adjoining parts. The extreme delicacy of this surgery explains
why the weapon remains in the mouth so long; the point of the sting is
seeking and eventually finds the tiny fraction of a millimetre where the
poison is to act. This is what we learn from the movements of the palpi
close to the motionless fangs; they tell us that the Calicurgi are
vivisectors of alarming accuracy.
If we accept the hypothesis of a special nerve-centre for the mandibles,
the difficulty would be a little less, without detracting from the
operator's talent. The sting would then have to reach a barely visible
speck, an atom in which we should hardly find room for the point of a
needle. This is the difficulty which the various paralysers solve in
ordinary practice. Do they actually wound with their dirks the ganglion
whose influence is to be done away with? It is possible, but I have
tried no test to make sure, the infinitely tiny wound appearing to be
too difficult to detect with the optical instruments at my disposal. Do
they confine themselves to lodging their drop of poison on the ganglion,
or at all events in its immediate neighbourhood? I do not say no.
I declare moreover, that, to provoke lightning paralysis, the poison, if
it is not deposited inside the mass of nervous substance, must act
from somewhere very near. This assertion is merely echoing what the
Two-banded Scolia has just shown us: her Cetonia-grub, stung less than
a millimetre from the regular spot, did not become motionless until next
day. There is no doubt, judging by this instance, that the effect of the
virus spreads in all directions within a radius of some extent; but
this diffusion is not enough for the operator, who requires for her egg,
which is soon to be laid, absolute safety from the very first.
On the other hand, the actions of the paralysers argue a precise search
for the ganglia, at all events for the first thoracic ganglion, the
most important of all. The Hairy Ammophila, among others, affords us an
excellent example of this method. Her three thrusts in the caterpillar's
thorax and especially the last, between the first and second pair of
legs, are more prolonged than the stabs distributed among the abdominal
ganglia. Everything justifies us in believing that, for these decisive
inoculations, the sting seeks out the corresponding ganglion and acts
only when it finds it under its point. On the abdomen this peculiar
insistence ceases; the sting passes swiftly from one segment to another.
For these segments, which are less dangerous, the Ammophila perhaps
relies on the diffusion of her venom; in any case, the injections,
though hastily administered, do not diverge from a close vicinity of the
ganglia, for their field of action is very limited, as is proved by the
number of inoculations necessary to induce complete torpor, or, more
simply, by the following example.
A Grey Worm which had just received its first sting on the third
thoracic segment repulses the Ammophila and with a jerk hurls her to a
distance. I profit by the occasion and take hold of the grub. The legs
of this third segment only are paralysed; the others retain their usual
mobility. However helpless in the two injured legs, the animal can walk
very well; it buries itself in the earth, returning to the surface at
night to gnaw the stump of lettuce with which I have served it. For a
fortnight my paralytic retains perfect liberty of action, except in the
segment operated on; then it dies, not of its wound but accidentally.
All this time the effect of the poison has not spread beyond the
inoculated segment.
At any point where the sting enters, anatomy informs us of the presence
of a nervous nucleus. Is this centre directly smitten by the weapon?
Or is it poisoned with virus, from a very small distance, by the
progressive impregnation of the neighbouring tissues? This is the
doubtful point, though it does not in any way invalidate the precision
of the abdominal injections, which are comparatively neglected. As for
those in the caterpillar's thorax, their precision is beyond dispute.
After the Ammophilae, the Scoliae and, above all, the Calicurgi, is it
really necessary to bring into court yet other witnesses, who would all
swear that, with modifications of detail, the movement of their lancet
is strictly regulated by the nervous system of the prey? This ought
to be enough. The proof is established for those who have ears to hear
with.
Others delight in objections whose oddity surprises me. They see in the
poison of the Hunting Wasps an antiseptic liquid and in victuals stored
in their burrows preserved meats which are kept fresh not by a remnant
of life but by the virus and its microbes. Come, my learned masters, let
us just talk the matter over, between ourselves. Have you ever seen the
larder of a skilled Hunting Wasp, a Sphex for instance, a Scolia, an
Ammophila? You haven't, have you? I thought as much. Yet it would be
better to begin by doing so, before bringing the preservative microbe
on the scene. The slightest examination would have shown you that the
victuals cannot be compared exactly with smoked hams. The thing moves,
therefore it is not dead. There you have the whole matter, in its
artless simplicity. The palpi move, the mandibles open and shut, the
tarsi quiver, the antennae and the abdominal filaments wave to and
fro, the abdomen throbs, the intestine rejects its contents, the animal
reacts to the stimulus of a needle, all of which signs are hardly
compatible with the idea of pickled meat.
Have you had the curiosity to look through the pages in which I set
forth the detailed results of my observations? You haven't, have
you? Again, I thought as much. It is a pity. You would there find, in
particular, the history of certain Ephippigers who, after being stung
by the Sphex according to rule, were reared by myself by hand. You must
agree that these are queer preserves to be produced by the use of an
antiseptic fluid. They accept the mouthfuls which I offer them on the
tip of a straw; they feed, they sit up and take nourishment. I shall
never live to see tinned sardines doing as much.
I will avoid tedious repetition and content myself with adding to my
old sheaf of proofs a few facts which have not yet been related. The
Nest-building Odynerus showed us in her cells a few Chrysomela-larvae
fixed by the hinder part to the side of the reed. The grub fastens
itself in this way to the poplar-leaf to obtain a purchase when the
moment has come for leaving the larval slough. Do not these preparations
for the nymphosis tell us plainly that the creature is not dead?
The Hairy Ammophila affords us an even better example. A number of
caterpillars operated on before my eyes attained, some sooner, some
later, the chrysalis stage. My notes are explicit on the subject of some
of them, taken on Verbascum sinuatum. Sacrificed on the 14th of April,
they were still irritable when tickled with a straw a fortnight after.
A little later, the pale-green colouring of the early stages is replaced
by a reddish brown, except on two or three segments of the median
ventral surface. The skin wrinkles and splits, but does not come
detached of its own accord. I can easily remove it in shreds. Under
this slough appears the firm, chestnut-brown horn integument of the
chrysalis. The development of the nymphosis is so correct that for a
moment the crazy hope occurs to me that I may see a Turnip-moth come out
of this mummy, the victim of a dozen dagger-thrusts. For the rest, there
is no attempt at spinning a cocoon, no jet of silky threads flung out
by the caterpillar before turning into a chrysalis. Perhaps under normal
conditions metamorphosis takes place without this protection. However,
the moth whom I expected to see was beyond the limits of the possible.
In the middle of May, a month after the operation on the caterpillars,
my three chrysalids, still incomplete underneath, in the three or four
middle segments, withered and at last went mouldy. Is the evidence
conclusive this time? Who can conceive such a silly idea as that a prey
really dead, a corpse preserved from putrefaction by an antiseptic,
could contain what is perhaps the most delicate work of life, the
development of the grub into the perfect insect?
The truth must be driven into recalcitrant brains with great blows of
the sledge-hammer. Let us once more employ this method. In September
I unearth from a heap of mould five Cetonia-grubs, paralysed by the
Two-banded Scolia and bearing on the abdomen the as yet unhatched egg of
the Wasp. I remove the eggs and install the helpless creatures on a bed
of leaf-mould with a glass cover. I propose to see how long I can keep
them fresh, able to move their mandibles and palpi. Already the victims
of various Hunting Wasps had instructed me on a similar matter; I knew
that traces of life linger for two, three, four weeks and longer. For
instance, I had seen the Ephippigers of the Languedocian Sphex continue
the waving of their antennae and their paralytic shudders for forty days
of artificial feeding by hand; and I used to wonder whether the more or
less early death of the other victims was not due to lack of nourishment
quite as much as to the operation which they had undergone. However,
the insect in its adult form usually has a very brief existence. It soon
dies, killed by the mere fact of living, without any other accident.
A larva is preferable for these investigations. Its constitution is
livelier, better able to support protracted abstinence, above all during
the winter torpor. The Cetonia-grub, a regular lump of bacon, nourished
by its own fat during the winter season, fulfils the needful conditions
to perfection. What will become of it, lying belly upwards on its bed of
leaf-mould? Will it survive the winter?
At the end of a month, three of my grubs turn brown and lapse into
rottenness. The other two keep perfectly fresh and move their antennae
and palpi at the touch of a straw. The cold weather comes and tickling
no longer elicits these signs of life. The inertia is complete;
nevertheless their appearance remains excellent, without a trace of the
brownish tinge, the sign of deterioration. At the return of the warm
weather, in the middle of May, there is a sort of resurrection. I
find my two larvae turned over, belly downwards; much more: they are
half-buried in the mould. When teased, they coil up lazily; they move
their legs as well as their mouth-parts, but slowly and without vigour.
Then their strength seems to revive. The convalescent, resuscitated
grubs dig with clumsy efforts into their bed of mould; they dive into
it and disappear to a depth of about two inches. Recovery seems to be
imminent.
I am mistaken. In June I unearth the invalids. This time, the larvae
are dead; their brown colour tells me as much. I expected better things.
Never mind: this is no trifling success. For nine months, nine long
months, the grubs stabbed by the Scolia kept fresh and alive. Towards
the end, torpor was dispelled, strength and movement returned,
sufficiently to enable them to leave the surface where I had placed them
and to regain the depths by boring a passage through the soil. I
really think that after this resurrection there will be no more talk of
antiseptics, unless and until tinned Herrings begin to frolic in their
brine. (The subject of this and the preceding chapters is continued in
an essay entitled "The Poison of the Bee" for which cf. "Bramble-bees
and Others": chapter 11.--Translator's Note.)
INDEX.
Acorn-weevil.
Amedeus' Eumenes.
Ameles decolor (see Grey Mantis).
Ammophila (see also the varieties below).
Ammophila hursuta (see Hairy Ammophila).
Ammophila holoserica (see Silky Ammophila).
Ammophila Julii (see Jules' Ammophila).
Ammophila sabulosa (see Sandy Ammophila).
Anathema Tachytes.
Anoxia (see also the varieties below).
Anoxia australis.
Anoxia matutinalis (see Morning Anoxia).
Anoxia villosa (see Shaggy Anoxia).
Ant.
Anthidium (see also the varieties below).
Anthidium bellicosum.
Anthidium scapulare.
Anthidium septemdentatum.
Anthophora.
Anthrax (see also Anthrax sinuata).
Anthrax sinuata.
Ape.
Aphis (see Plant-louse).
Ass.
Astata.
Balaninus (see also Balaninus glandum).
Balaninus glandum (see Acorn-weevil).
Banded Epeira.
Bat.
Bee (see also Bumble-bee, Hive-bee, Mason-bee).
Bee-eating Philanthus.
Beetle.
Bembex (see also the varieties below).
Bembex bidentata (see Two-pronged Bembex).
Bembex rostrata (see Rostrate Bembex).
Black, Adam and Charles.
Black-bellied Tarantula.
Black Spider (see Cellar Spider).
Black Tachytes.
Blister-beetle (see Oil-beetle).
Bluebottle.
Blue Osmia.
Bombylius.
Boyle, Robert.
Brachycera.
Brachyderes pubescens (see Pubescent Brachyderes).
Breguet, Louis.
Brillat-Savarin, Anthelme.
Brown-winged Solenius.
Bug.
Bull.
Bull, the author's Dog.
Bullock.
Bumble-bee.
Buprestis.
Buprestis-hunting Cerceris.
Burnt Zonitis.
Butterfly.
Cabbage Pieris.
Calicurgus (see Pompilus and the varieties below).
Calicurgus annulatus (see Ringed Calicurgus).
Calicurgus scurra (see Harlequin Calicurgus).
Callot, Jacques.
Cantharides.
Carpenter-bee.
Cellar Spider.
Century co.
Cerceris (see also Buprestis-hunting Cerceris and the varieties below).
Cerceris arenaria (see Sand Cerceris).
Cerceris Ferreri (see Ferrero's Cerceris).
Cerceris ornata (see Ornate Cerceris).
Cerceris tuberculata (see Great Cerceris).
Cerocoma.
Cetonia (see also the varieties below).
Cetonia aurata (see Golden Cetonia).
Cetonia morio.
Chaffinch.
Chalicodoma (see Mason-bee).
Chaoucho-grapaou (see Nightjar).
Chimpanzee.
Chrysomela populi (see Poplar Leaf-beetle).
Cicada.
Cicadella.
Cleonus (see also Cleonus ophthalmicus).
Cleonus ophthalmicus.
Cneorhinus.
Cockchafer.
Colpa interrupta (see Interrupted Scolia).
Common Cockchafer (see Cockchafer).
Common Wasp.
Cotton-bee (see Anthidium scapulare).
Cow.
Crab.
Crabro (see Hornet).
Crabro chrysostomus (see Golden-mouthed Hornet).
Cricket.
Crowned Philanthus.
Cuckoo.
Darwin, Charles Robert.
David the painter.
David, Felicien Cesar.
Death's-head Hawk-moth.
Devilkin (see Empusa).
Dicranura vinula.
Dioxys cincta (see Girdled Dioxys).
Dog (see also Bull).
Drone-fly.
Dufour, Jean Marie Leon.
Duges, Louis Antoine.
Earth-worm.
Eight-spotted Pompilus.
Empusa.
Epeira (see also the varieties below).
Epeira fasciata (see Banded Epeira).
Epeira serica (see Silky Epeira).
Ephippiger.
Eristalis E. tenax (see Drone-fly).
Eucera.
Euchlora Julii.
Eumenes (see also Amedeus Eumenes).
Fabricius, Johan Christian.
Favier, the author's factotum.
Ferrero's Cerceris.
Field-mouse.
Fly (see also Gad-fly, House-fly).
Fox.
Frog.
Gad-fly.
Galileo.
Garden Scolia.
Garden Spider (see Epeira).
Geonomus.
Girdled Dioxys.
Gnat.
Goat.
Goatsucker (see Nightjar).
Golden Cetonia.
Golden-crested Wren.
Golden-mouthed Hornet.
Golden Osmia.
Gorilla.
Grasshopper.
Great Cellar Spider (see Cellar Spider).
Great Cerceris.
Grey Mantis.
Grey Worm.
Hairy Ammophila.
Halictus.
Harlequin Calicurgus.
Hedgehog.
Helophilus pendulus.
Hemorrhoidal Scolia.
Hen.
Herring.
Hive-bee.
Hog.
Hornet (see also Golden-mouthed Hornet).
House-fly.
Interrupted Scolia.
Jules, Ammophila.
Klug.
Lalande, Joseph Jerome Le Francais de.
Lamellicorn.
Languedocian Sphex.
Lark.
Latreille, Pierre Andre.
Leucopsis gigas, L. grandis.
Lily-beetle.
Linnet.
Locust.
Looper.
Lycosa (see Black-bellied Tarantula).
Macmillan Co.
Mantis (see also Grey Mantis, Praying Mantis).
Mantis-hunting Tachytes (see Mantis-killing Tachytes).
Mantis-killing Tachytes.
Mariotte, Edme.
Mason-bee (see also the Anthophora and the varieties below).
Mason-bee of the Pebbles (see Mason-bee of the Walls).
Mason-bee of the Sheds.
Mason-bee of the Shrubs.
Mason-bee of the Walls.
Measuring-worm (see Looper).
Megachile sericans.
Melanophora.
Meloe (see Oil-beetle).
Miall, Bernard.
Midge.
Mithradates VI.
Mole.
Mole-cricket.
Monkey.
Monoceros (see Oryctes nasicornis).
Morning Anoxia.
Mosquito.
Moth.
Mule.
Muscid (see House-fly).
Mylabris.
Narbonne Lycosa (see Black-bellied Tarantula).
Nest-building Odynerus.
Nightjar.
Nut-weevil.
Odynerus (see also Nest-building Odynerus).
Oil-beetle.
Ornate Cerceris.
Oryctes nasicornis.
Oryctes Silenus.
Osmia (see also the varieties below).
Osmia cyanea (see Blue Osmia).
Osmia cyanoxantha.
Osmia Latreillii (see Latreille's Osmia).
Osmia parvula (see Tiny Osmia).
Osmia tricornis (see Three-horned Osmia).
Ostrich.
Otiorhynchus.
Palarus (see also Palarus flavipes).
Palarus flavipes.
Pangonia.
Panzer's Tachytes.
Paragus.
Pascal, Blaise.
Passerini.
Pea-weevil.
Pelopaeus.
Pentodon punctatus.
Perez, J.
Phaneropteron falcata.
Philanthus (see also the varieties below).
Philanthus apivorus (see Bee-eating Philanthus).
Philanthus coronatus (see Crowned Philanthus).
Philanthus raptor (see Robber Philanthus).
Phynotomus.
Pieris (see Cabbage Pieris).
Pig.
Pine-chafer.
Pithecanthropus.
Plant-louse.
Pompilus (see also the varieties below).
Pompilus annulatus (see Ringed Calicurgus).
Pompilus apicalis.
Pompilus octopunctatus (see Eight-spotted Pompilus).
Poplar Leaf-Beetle.
Praying Mantis.
Pubescent Brachyderes.
Rat.
Resin-bee (see Anthidium bellicosum, Anthidium septemdentatum).
Rhinoceros Beetle (see Oryctes nasicornis).
Rhynchites betuleti.
Ringed Calicurgus.
Ringed Pompilus (see Ringed Calicurgus).
Robber Philanthus.
Robber-fly.
Robin.
Romanes, George John.
Rose-chafer (see Cetonia, Golden Cetonia).
Rostrate Bembex.
Sand Cerceris.
Sandy Ammophila.
Sapyga punctata (see Spotted Sapyga).
Sarcophaga.
Scarabaeid.
Scarabaeus pentodon.
Scolia (see also the varieties below).
Scolia bifasciata (see Two-banded Scolia).
Scolia haemorrhoidalis (see Hemorrhoidal Scolia).
Scolia hortorum (see Garden Scolia).
Scolia interrupta (see Interrupted Scolia).
Screech-owl.
Seal.
Segestria perfidia (see Cellar Spider).
Shaggy Anoxia.
Sheep.
Silkworm.
Silky Ammophila.
Silky Epeira.
Silky Leaf-cutter (see Megachile sericans).
Sitones.
Skua.
Slug.
Snail.
Socrates.
Solenius fascipennis (see Brown-winged Solenius).
Solenius vagus (see Wandering Solenius).
Sparrow.
Sparrow-hawk.
Sphaerophoria.
Sphex (see also Languedocian Sphex, White-banded Sphex, Yellow-winged
Sphex.)
Spider (see also Black-bellied Tarantula, Cellar Spider, Epeira.
Spotted Sapyga.
Spurge Hawk-moth.
Stizus (see also the varieties below).
Stizus ruficornis.
Stizus tridentatus.
Strophosomus.
Swallow.
Swammerdam, Jan.
Syritta perpens.
Syrphus.
Tachytes (see also Mantis-killing Tachytes and the varieties below).
Tachytes anathema (see Anathema Tachytes).
Tachytes nigra (see Black Tachytes).
Tachytes Panzeri (see Panzer's Tachytes).
Tachytes tarsina (see Tarsal Tachytes).
Tachytes unicolor.
Tarantula (see Black-bellied Tarantula).
Tarsal Bembex.
Tarsal Tachytes.
Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander.
Three-horned Osmia.
Tiny Osmia.
Toad.
Toricelli, Evangelista.
Toussenel, Alphonse.
Turkey.
Turnip Moth.
Two-banded Scolia.
Two-pronged Bembex.
Unwin, T. Fisher, Ltd.
Vespa crabro (see Hornet).
Virgilian Bee, Virgil's Bee (see Drone-fly).
Wandering Solenius.
Wasp (see Common Wasp).
Weevil (see also Acorn-weevil, Nut-weevil, Pea-weevil).
Whale.
Whippoorwill (see Nightjar).
White-banded Sphex.
White Worm.
Wolf.
Yellow-winged Sphex.
Zeuzera.
Zonitis praeusta (see Burnt Zonitis).