Lastly, round about Avignon, the Interrupted Scolia used to prey upon the
larva of the Shaggy Anoxia (A. villosa). At Serignan, which is surrounded
by the same kind of sandy soil, without other vegetation than a few sparse
seed-bearing grasses, I find her rationing her young with the Morning
Anoxia (A. matutinalis). Oryctes, Cetoniae and Anoxiae in the larval state:
here then is the prey of the three Scoliae whose habits we know. The three
Beetles are Lamellicorns, Scarabaeidae. We shall have occasion later to
consider the reason of this very striking coincidence.

For the moment, the business in hand is to move the heap of leaf-mould to
some other place, with the wheelbarrow. This is Favier's work, while I
myself collect the disturbed population in glass jars, in order to put them
back into the new rubbish-heap with all the consideration which my plans
owe to them. The laying-time has not yet set in, for I find no eggs, no
young Scolia-larvae. September apparently will be the propitious month. But
there are bound to be many injured in the course of this upheaval; some of
the Scoliae have flown away who will perhaps have a certain difficulty in
finding the new site; I have disarranged everything in the overturned heap.
To allow tranquility to be restored and habit to resume its rounds, to give
the population time to increase and replace the fugitives and the injured,
it would be best, I think, to leave the heap alone this year and not to
resume my investigations until the next. After the thorough confusion due
to the removal, I should jeopardize success by being too precipitate. Let
us wait one year more. I decide accordingly, curb my impatience and resign
myself. We will simply confine ourselves to enlarging the heap, when the
leaves begin to fall, by accumulating the refuse that strews the paddock,
so that we may have a richer field of operations.

In the following August, my visits to the mound of leaf-mould become a
daily habit. By two o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun has cleared the