Note 3 — Chapter ii · THE GREAT CERCERIS

Besides, she is far from being the only one to go hunting at the expense of the snouted clan, the Weevils. Many other Cerceres, according to their size, their strength and the accidents of the chase, capture Weevils varying infinitely in genus, species, shape, and dimensions. It has long been known that Cerceris arenaria feeds her grubs on similar provisions. I myself have encountered in her lairs Sitona lineata, S. tibialis, Cneorinus hispidus, Brachyderes gracilis, Geonemus flabellipes and Otiorhynchus maleficus. Cerceris aurita is known to make her booty of Otiorhynchus raucus and Phynotomus punctatus. The larder of Cerceris Ferreri has shown me the following: Phynotomus murinus, P. punctatus, Sitona lineata, Cneorinus hispidus, Rhynchites betuleti. The last, who rolls vine-leaves in the shape of cigars, is sometimes a superb steel-blue and more ordinarily shines with a splendid golden copper. I have found as many as seven of these brilliant insects victualling a single cell; and the gaudiness of the little subterranean heap might almost stand comparison with the jewels buried by the Buprestis-huntress. Other species, notably the weaker, go in for lesser game, whose small size is atoned for by larger numbers. Thus Cerceris quadricincta stacks quite thirty specimens of Apion gravidum in each of her cells, without disdaining on occasion such larger Weevils as Sitona lineata and Phynotomus murinus. A similar provision of small species falls to the share of Cerceris labiata. Lastly, the smallest Cerceris in my district, Cerceris Julii,3 chases the tiniest Weevils, Apion gravidum and Bruchus granarius, victims proportioned to the diminutive huntress. To finish with this list of game, let us add that a few Cerceres observe other gastronomic laws and raise their families on Hymenoptera. One of these is Cerceris ornata. We will dismiss these tastes as foreign to the subject in hand.