But vain would be our search in winter, even in the most sheltered refuges, for a Cerceris, Sphex, Philanthus, Bembex or other Wasp with carnivorous grubs. All died after their autumnal labours and their race is not represented, in the cold season, save by the larvæ slumbering in their cells. It is, then, by a most rare exception that the Hairy Ammophila, hatched in the hot season, spends the following winter in some warm shelter; and this is the reason why she appears so very early in the spring. With these data to go upon, let us try to explain the cluster of Ammophilæ which I observed on the ridges of Mont Ventoux. What could these numerous Wasps have been doing, heaped up under their stone? Were they preparing to take up their winter quarters there and, slumbering under cover, to await the season favourable to their work? Everything tends to show that this is improbable. It is not in August, at the hottest time of year, that an animal is overcome with its winter drowsiness. Nor is it any use to suggest the want of food, of honeyed juices sucked from the flowers. The September showers are at hand; and vegetation, suspended for a moment by the heat of the dog-days, will gather fresh vigour and cover the fields with blossoms almost as diverse as those of spring. This season of revelry for the majority of Wasps and Bees could never be a period of torpor for the Hairy Ammophila. And then have we any right to imagine that the heights of Ventoux, swept by the gusts of the mistral, which sometimes uproots both beech and pine; that crests where the north wind sends the snow-flakes whirling for six months in succession; that peaks wrapped for the best part of the year in cold cloud-fogs, can be adopted as a winter refuge by an insect enamoured of the sun? One might as well suggest that it should hibernate among the ice-floes of the North Cape. No, it is not here that the Hairy Ammophila can spend the cold season. The group which I observed was only passing through. At the first hint of rain, a hint that escaped us but could not escape the insect, which is so highly sensitive to the atmospheric variations, the band of travellers had taken shelter under a stone, waiting for the rain to stop before resuming their flight. Whence did they come? Whither were they bent?