The Hunting Wasps

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About this book

The Hunting Wasps includes chapters headed The Buprestis-Hunting Cerceris and The Ignorance of Instinct. The text describes a huntress of Buprestes who changes the species according to place, climate and vegetation but never departs from her favoured genus, the genus Buprestis. The writer asks “What can her reason be?” and says “That is what I shall try to show.”

The writer says Cerceris tuberculata was observed in her largest numbers in the neighbourhood of Carpentras, in the part known as the Hollow Road. Though no sort of communism exists among the insects, they nevertheless like to associate in small numbers, and the writer has always observed their nests in groups of about ten. The plucky insect, despite the hindrance of her heavy load, is seen walking up a vertical plane with the same assured gait and the same speed as on level ground.

About the author

Jean-Henri Fabre

Jean-Henri Fabre (1823-1915) was a French naturalist and teacher celebrated for his patient, first-hand studies of insects. His multi-volume 'Souvenirs entomologiques' won him wide admiration, and he wrote many clear, engaging science books to bring the natural world to ordinary readers and children.