parasite is one who eats another's bread, one
who lives on the provisions of others. Entomology often alters this term
from its real meaning. Thus it describes as parasites the Chrysis, the
Mutilla, the Anthrax, the Leucopsis, all of whom feed their family not
on the provisions amassed by others, but on the very larvae which have
consumed those provisions, their actual property. When the Tachinae have
succeeded in laying their eggs on the game warehoused by the Bembex, the
burrower's home is invaded by real parasites, in the strict sense of the
word. Around the heap of Gad-flies, collected solely for the children of
the house, new guests force their way, numerous and hungry, and without
the least ceremony plunge into the thick of it. They sit down to a table
that was not laid for them; they eat side by side with the lawful
owner; and this in such haste that he dies of starvation, though he is
respected by the teeth of the interlopers who have gorged themselves on
his portion.

When the Melecta has substituted her egg for the Anthophora's, here
again we see a real parasite settling in the usurped cell. The pile of
honey laboriously gathered by the mother will not even be broken in upon
by the nurseling for which it was intended. Another will profit by it,
with none to say him nay. Tachinae and Melectae: those are the true
parasites, consumers of others' goods.

Can we say as much of the Chrysis or the Mutilla? In no wise. The
Scoliae, whose habits are known to us, are certainly not parasites. (The
habits of the Scolia-wasp have been described in different essays not
yet translated into English.--Translator's Note.) No one will accuse
them of stealing the food of others. Zealous workers, they seek and find
under ground the fat grubs on which their family will feed. They follow
the chase by virtue of the same quality as the most renowned hunters,
Cerceris, Sphex or Ammophila; only, instead of removing the game to a
special lair, they leave it where it is, down in the burrow. Homeless
poachers, they let their venison be consumed on the spot where it is
caught.

In what respect do the Mutilla, the Chrysis, the Leucopsis, the Anthrax
and so many others differ, in their way of living, from the Scolia? It
seems to me, in none. See for yourselves. By an artifice that varies
according to the mother's talent, their grubs, either in the germ-stage
or newly-born, are brought into touch with the victim that is to feed
them: an un