3. Bembex tarsata, Lat. This one also lays her egg on Sphærophoria scripta. She next hunts: Anthrax flava, Bombylius nitidulus, Eristalis æneus, E. sepulchralis, Merodon spinipes, Syrphus corollæ, Helophilus trivittatus and Zodion notatum. Her favourite game consists of Bombylii, or Bee-flies, and Anthrax-flies. [39] 4. Bembex Julii (sp. nov.). The egg is laid on a Sphærophoria or on a Pollenia floralis. The provisions are a hotchpotch of Syrphus corollæ, Echinomyia rubescens, E. intermedia, Gonia atra, Pollenia floralis, P. ruficollis, Clytia pellucens, Lucilia Cæsar, Dexia rustica and Bombylius. 5. Bembex rostrata, Fab. This is preeminently a consumer of Gad-flies. She lays her egg on a Syrphus corollæ or a Lucilia Cæsar, after which she feeds her larva exclusively on big game belonging to the various species of the genus Tabanus. 6. Bembex bidentata, V. L. Another ardent huntress of Gad-flies. I have never seen her pursue other game and I do not know on what Fly the egg is laid. This great variety of provisions shows that the Bembex have no exclusive tastes and fall upon any species of Flies, indifferently, which the hazards of the chase place within their reach. They seem nevertheless to entertain a few preferences. Thus one species feeds more particularly on Bee-flies, a second on Stomoxys-flies, a third and a fourth on Gad-flies. CHAPTER XV THE FLY-HUNT After our list, in the last chapter, of the fare on which the Bembex feed in the larval form, it behoves us to seek the motive that induces these Wasps to adopt a method of victualling so exceptional among the digger-insects. Why, instead of previously storing a sufficient quantity of provisions on which the egg could be laid—which would enable the mother to close the cell immediately afterwards and never to return to it—why, I ask, does she tie herself down for a fortnight to this incessant, toilsome coming and going from the burrow to the fields and from the fields to the burrow, forcing her way each time through the unstable sand, either to go hunting or to bring the larva her latest capture? It is, first and foremost, a question of having fresh victuals for her larva: an all-important question, for the grub absolutely refuses any high or tainted game. Like the grubs of the other Diggers, it wants fresh meat and nothing but fresh meat.