. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. Ill SPHEGIDAE- -PHILANTHIDES 125 intermediate between the two great divisions of the Fossores, for the pronotal lobe extends nearly or quite as far back as the tegulae, and in Philanthus the two come into almost actual contiguity. The species of the genus Cerceris are numerous in Europe, and several of them are known to make burrows in the ground, and store them with beetles for the benefit of the future larvae. The beetles chosen differ in family according to the species of Cerceris ; but it appears from the observations of Fabre and Dufour that one k
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. Ill SPHEGIDAE- -PHILANTHIDES 125 intermediate between the two great divisions of the Fossores, for the pronotal lobe extends nearly or quite as far back as the tegulae, and in Philanthus the two come into almost actual contiguity. The species of the genus Cerceris are numerous in Europe, and several of them are known to make burrows in the ground, and store them with beetles for the benefit of the future larvae. The beetles chosen differ in family according to the species of Cerceris ; but it appears from the observations of Fabre and Dufour that one kind of Cerceris never in its selection goes out of the limits of a particular family of beetles, but, curiously enough, will take Insects most dissimilar in form and colour provided they belong to the proper family. This choice, so wide in one direction and so limited in another, seems to point to the existence of some sense,. FIG. 49.—Philanthus triaiiyulttm 6- Britain. of the nature of which we are unaware, that determines the selection made by the Insect. In the case of our British species of Cerceris, Smith observed C. arenaria carrying to its nest Cur- culionidae of very diverse forms; while C. labiata used a beetle —Haltica tabida—of the family Chrysomelidae. The beetles, after being caught, are stung in the chief articulation of the body, that, namely, between the pro- and mesothorax. Cerceris lupresticida confines itself exclusively to beetles of the family Buprestidae. It was by observations on this Insect that Dufour first discovered the fact that the Insects stored up do not decay : he thought, however, that this was due to the liquid injected by the wasp exercising some antiseptic power; but the observations of Fabre have shown that the pre- servation in a fresh state is due to life not being extinguished ; the stillness, almost as if of death, being due to the destruction of the functional activity of the nerve centres that govern the movements of the
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