Note 1 — Chapter v · THE THREE DAGGER-THRUSTS

The egg of the Yellow-winged Sphex is white, elongated, cylindrical, slightly bow-shaped and measures three to four millimetres1 in length. So far from being laid anywhere on the victim, at random, it is deposited on a specially favoured spot, which is always the same; in short, it is placed across the Cricket’s breast, a little to one side, between the first and second pair of legs. The egg of the White-edged Sphex and that of the Languedocian Sphex occupy a similar position: the first on the breast of a Locust, the second on the breast of an Ephippiger.2 The point selected must present some peculiarity of great importance to the young larva’s safety, for I have never known it to vary.