THE WORKS OF J. H. FABRE THE HUNTING WASPS BY J. HENRI FABRE Translated by ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS, F.Z.S. HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO TRANSLATOR’S NOTE Henri Fabre’s essays on Wasps will fill three volumes in all, of which this is the first. The others will be entitled The Mason-Wasps and More Hunting Wasps. The former will include the chapters on the Common or Social Wasp. The first seventeen chapters of the present book appeared some years ago, wholly or in part, in a version of vol. i. of the Souvenirs Entomologiques prepared by the author of Mademoiselle Mori for Messrs. Macmillan and Co., by arrangement with whom I am now permitted to retranslate and republish them for the purpose of this collected and definite edition of Fabre’s entomological works. Of the remainder, ‘The Modern Theory of Instinct’ first saw the light in the English Review, and ‘An Unknown Sense,’ in an abbreviated form, in the Daily Mail. It is a pleasure once more to express my thanks to Miss Frances Rodwell, who, as usual, has rendered me much valuable assistance, and to Mr. Geoffrey Meade-Waldo, of the Natural History Museum, who has been kind enough to set me right on many an entomological point. Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. Chelsea, 1916. CONTENTS PAGE TRANSLATOR’S NOTE V CHAPTER I THE BUPRESTIS-HUNTING CERCERIS 1 CHAPTER II THE GREAT CERCERIS 18 CHAPTER III A SCIENTIFIC SLAUGHTERER 40 CHAPTER IV THE YELLOW-WINGED SPHEX 58 CHAPTER V THE THREE DAGGER-THRUSTS 75 CHAPTER VI THE LARVA AND THE NYMPH 86 CHAPTER VII ADVANCED THEORIES 107 CHAPTER VIII THE LANGUEDOCIAN SPHEX 129 CHAPTER IX THE WISDOM OF INSTINCT 149 CHAPTER X THE IGNORANCE OF INSTINCT 174 CHAPTER XI AN ASCENT OF MONT VENTOUX 196 CHAPTER XII THE TRAVELLERS 215 CHAPTER XIII THE AMMOPHILÆ 231 CHAPTER XIV THE BEMBEX 251 CHAPTER XV THE FLY-HUNT 271 CHAPTER XVI A PARASITE OF THE BEMBEX. THE COCOON 284 CHAPTER XVII THE RETURN TO THE NEST 305