According to the Italian observer Passerini, the Garden Scolia feeds
her family on the larvae of Oryctes nasicornis, in the heaps of old
tan-waste removed from the hot-houses. I do not despair of seeing
this colossal Wasp coming to establish herself one day in my heaps of
leaf-mould, in which the same Scarabaeid is swarming. Her rarity in
my part of the country is probably the only cause that has hitherto
prevented the realization of my wishes.
I have just shown that the Two-banded Scolia feeds in infancy on
Cetonia-larvae and particularly on those of C. aurata, C. morio and C.
floricola. These three species dwell together in the rubbish-heap just
explored; their larvae differ so little that I should have to examine
them minutely to distinguish the one from the other; and even then I
should not be certain of succeeding. It seems probable that the Scolia
does not choose between them, that she uses all three indiscriminately.
Perhaps she even assails other larvae, inhabitants, like the foregoing,
of heaps of rotting vegetable-matter. I therefore set down the Cetonia
genus generally as forming the prey of the Two-banded Scolia.
Lastly, round about Avignon, the Interrupted Scolia used to prey upon
the larva of the Shaggy Anoxia (A. villosa). At Serignan, which is
surrounded by the same kind of sandy soil, without other vegetation than
a few sparse seed-bearing grasses, I find her rationing her young with
the Morning Anoxia (A. matutinalis). Oryctes, Cetoniae and Anoxiae
in the larval state: here then is the prey of the three Scoliae whose
habits we know. The three Beetles are Lamellicorns, Scarabaeidae. We
shall have occasion later to consider the reason of this very striking
coincidence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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