Lord be praised, the road is deserted! The journey is accomplished without hindrance; the thread, my great anxiety, does not break; the egg is not bruised; everything is in order. The little clod of earth is put in a place of safety, with the cell in a horizontal position. I distribute near the egg two or three of the grubs which I have collected; the complete allowance of provisions would cause trouble, now that the cell possesses only half its enclosing wall and is reduced to a semicylinder. Two days later, I find the egg hatched. The young larva, yellow in colour, is hanging by its hinder end, head downwards. It is busy with its first grub, whose skin is already growing limp. The suspension-cord consists of the short thread that supported the egg, with the addition of the slough, now reduced to a sort of crumpled ribbon. In order to remain sheathed in the end of this hollow ribbon, the hinder end of the new-born larva is at first slightly constricted and then swells into a button. If I disturb it while at rest, or if the victuals move, the larva withdraws, shrinking back upon itself, but without retreating into the ascending-sheath, as does the Eumenes’ larva. The tethering-cord does not serve as a scabbard, as a refuge into which the larva can retire; it is rather an anchor-chain, which gives it a purchase on the ceiling and enables it to protect itself by shrinking to a safe distance from the heap of victuals. When things are quiet, the larva lengthens out and returns to its grub. Thus do matters happen at the start, according to my observations, of which some were made at home, in my rearing-jars, and others on the spot, when I unearthed cells containing a larva young enough for my purpose. The first grub is devoured in twenty-four hours. The larva thereupon, so it seemed, goes through a moult. For at least some time it remains inactive and contracted; then it releases itself from the cord. It is now free, in contact with the heap of grubs and henceforth unable to step out of the way. The life-line has not lasted long; it protected the egg and safeguarded its hatching; but the larva is still very weak and the peril has not diminished. This means that we shall discover other means of protection. By a very strange exception, whereof so far I know no other instance, the egg is laid before the provisions are stored. I have seen cells which as yet contained absolutely nothing in the way of victuals and which nevertheless had the egg swinging from the ceiling. I have seen others, also furnished with the egg and so far containing only two or three head of game, a first instalment of the abundant dish of twenty-four. This early egg-laying, so utterly unlike what happens in the case of the other predatory Wasps, has its underlying motive, as we shall see; it has its logic at which we cannot fail to marvel.