[4] Pierre André Latreille (1762–1833), a French naturalist who was one of the founders of entomological science.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[5] The Beetle known to Fabre as Sphenoptera geminata, Uliger, is now considered identical with S. lineola, Herbst, which was known many years earlier.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
Chapter ii
THE GREAT CERCERIS
With my memory full of the prowess of the Buprestis-huntress, I watched for an opportunity to observe in my turn the labours of the Cerceres; and I watched to such good purpose that I ended by being successful. True, the Wasp was not the one celebrated by Léon Dufour, with her sumptuous victuals whose remains, when unearthed, suggest the dust of some nugget broken by the gold-miner’s pick: it was a kindred species, a gigantic brigand who contents herself with humbler prey; in short, it was Cerceris tuberculata or C. major, the largest and most powerful of the genus.
The last fortnight in September is the time when our Burrowing Wasp digs her lairs and buries in their depths the victim destined for her grubs. The site of the home, always selected with discrimination, is subject to those mysterious laws which differ in different species but are invariable throughout any one species. Léon Dufour’s Cerceris requires a level, well-trodden, [[19]]compact soil, such as that of a path, to prevent the possibility of landslips and other damage which would ruin her gallery at the first shower of rain. Ours, on the contrary, is not very particular about the nature of her soil, but must have that soil vertical. With this slight architectural modification, she avoids most of the dangers that might threaten her gallery; and consequently she digs her burrows indifferently in a loose and slightly clayey soil and in the soft sand of the Molasse formation, which makes the work of excavation much easier. The only indispensable condition appears to be that the earth should be dry and exposed to the sun’s rays for the best part of the day. It is therefore in the steep roadside banks, in the sides of the ravines hollowed by the rains in the sandstone, that our Wasp elects to establish her home. These conditions are common in the neighbourhood of Carpentras, in the part known as the Hollow Road; and it is here that I have observed Cerceris tuberculata in her largest numbers and that I gathered most of my facts relating to her history.
The choice of this vertical site is not enough for her: other precautions are taken to guard against the inevitable rains of the season, which is already far advanced. If there be [[20]]some bit of hard sandstone projecting like a ledge, if there be naturally hollowed in the ground some hole large enough to put one’s fist in, it will be under that shelter or in this cavity that she contrives her gallery, thus adding a natural vestibule to the edifice of her own construction. Though no sort of communism exists among them, these insects nevertheless like to associate in small numbers; and I have always observed their nests in groups of about ten at least, with the orifices, which are usually pretty far apart, sometimes close enough to touch one another.
On a bright, sunny day it is wonderful to watch the different operations of these industrious miners. Some patiently remove with their mandibles a few bits of gravel from the bottom of the pit and push the heavy mass outside; others, scraping the walls of the corridor with the sharp rakes of their tarsi, collect a heap of rubbish which they sweep out backwards and send streaming down the sides of the slopes in a long thread of dust. It was these periodical billows of sand discharged from the galleries in process of building that betrayed the presence of my first Cerceres to me and enabled me to discover their nests. Others, either because they are tired or because they have finished their hard task, seem to rest and [[21]]polish their antennæ and wings under the natural eaves that most frequently protect their dwelling; or else they remain motionless at the mouth of the hole, merely showing their wide, square faces, striped black and yellow. Others, lastly, flit gravely humming on the neighbouring kermes-oak-bushes, where the males, always on the watch near the burrows in course of construction, are not slow to join them. Couples form, often disturbed by the arrival of a second male, who strives to supplant the happy possessor. The humming becomes threatening, brawls take place and often the two males roll in the dust until one of them acknowledges the superiority of his rival. Near by, the female awaits the outcome of the struggle with indifference; she finally accepts the male whom the chances of the contest bestow upon her; and the couple fly out of sight in search of peace and quiet on some distant brushwood. Here the part played by the males ends. Only half the size of the females and nearly as numerous, they prowl all around the burrows, but never enter and never take part in the laborious mining operations nor in the perhaps even more difficult hunting expeditions by means of which the cells are to be stocked.
The galleries are ready in a few days, especially [[22]]as those of the previous year are employed with the aid of a few repairs. The other Cerceres, so far as I know, have no fixed home, no family inheritance handed down from generation to generation. A regular gipsy tribe, they settle singly wherever the chances of their vagrant life may lead them, provided that the soil suits them. But the Great Cerceris is faithful to her household gods. The overhanging blade of sandstone that sheltered her predecessors is adopted by her in her turn; she digs in the same layer of sand wherein her forbears dug; and, adding her own labours to those which went before, she obtains deep retreats that are not always easy of inspection. The diameter of the galleries is wide enough to admit a man’s thumb; and the insect moves about in them readily, even when laden with the prey which we shall see it capture. Their direction, at first horizontal to a depth of four to eight inches, describes a sudden bend and dips more or less obliquely now to this side, now to that. With the exception of the horizontal part and the bend, the direction of the rest of the tube seems to be regulated by the difficulties presented by the ground, as is proved by the twists and turns observed in the more distant portion. The total length of the shaft attains as much as eighteen inches. At the [[23]]far end of the tube are the cells, few in number and each provisioned with five or six corpses of the Beetle order. But let us leave these building details and come to facts more capable of exciting our admiration.