Note 1 — III CERCERIS BUPRESTICIDA

Let us hasten to the pine region to taste new pleasures. The spot to be explored is a garden belonging to a property in the midst of forests of the maritime pines. The haunts of the Cerceris were soon recognised; they were exclusively found in the main paths, where the beaten and compact soil offered the burrowing Hymenoptera sufficient solidity for the construction of their subterranean dwellings. I visited some twenty, and I did it, I may say, by the sweat of my brow. It is a very laborious kind of exploration, for the nests and provisions are only found at the depth of one foot, so that it is necessary to invest the place by a line of square trenches seven or eight inches from the mouth of the hole, first inserting a stalk of grass in the gallery by way of clue. One must sap with a garden spade, so that the central clod, thoroughly detached all round, may be raised in one piece, then reversed on the ground and broken up carefully. Such is the manœuvre which I found successful. You would have shared our enthusiasm at the sight of the beautiful species of Buprestis which this new style of research revealed to our eager gaze. You ought to have heard our exclamations as each time the clod was reversed, new treasures were revealed rendered yet more brilliant by the hot sun, or when we discovered the larvæ of every age attached to their prey, or the cocoons of these larvæ incrusted with copper, bronze, and emerald. I who had been for three or four times ten years, alas! a practical entomologist had never beheld such an enchanting sight or had had such good fortune. We only wanted you to double our enjoyment. With ever increasing admiration we dwelt now on the brilliant Coleoptera and now on the marvellous sagacity of the Cerceris which had buried and laid them up for food. Can you believe it? Out of more than 400 beetles dug up, there was not one which did not belong to the old genus Buprestis! Our Hymenopteron had not committed the smallest error. How much there is to learn from this intelligent industry in so small an insect! What value Latreille would have attached to the vote of this Cerceris in favour of the natural system!1