{117}One species of _Tachytes_ in the south of France selects as its prey Orthoptera of the family Mantidae, Insects of a highly ferocious disposition, and provided with most powerful front legs, capable of cutting in two by a single act the body of an aggressor like the _Tachytes_; the latter is, however, by no means dismayed by the arms of its future victim, but hovering above the latter for some time, as if to confuse it, and causing it repeatedly to turn its very mobile head, the _Tachytes_ at last pounces down and instantaneously stings the _Mantis_ in the nerve centre between the formidable arms, which at once are reduced to incapacity; subsequently the _Tachytes_ paralyses each of the other pairs of legs, and then carries off its victim. [Illustration: Fig. 45.—_Tachytes pectinipes_ ♀. Britain.] _Larra anathema_ chooses mole-crickets as the viand for its young, and _Tachysphex panzeri_ selects grasshoppers of the family Acridiidae. _Larra pompiliformis_ (= _Tachytes niger_, Fabre) sometimes associates itself with _Sphex flavipennis_ (_? S. maxillosus_, according to Kohl), forming its burrow amidst the works of a colony of that species, and making use, like the _Sphex_, of crickets for provender. This led Fabre to believe that the _Larra_ stole its prey from the _Sphex_, but he has since withdrawn this indictment, and declares that the _Larra_ obtains its crickets by the more honourable, if not more humane, process of catching and stinging them itself. Smith has informed us, on the faith of his own observation, that _L. pompiliformis_ uses both Lepidopterous larvae and grasshoppers for its stores.