THE EUMENES 217 



cause they have received but a single stab ; they toss about 

 when touched with a pin; they are bound to wriggle 

 when bitten by the larva. If the egg is laid on one of 

 them, the first morsel will, I admit, be consumed without 

 danger, on condition that the point of attack be wisely 

 chosen ; but there remain others which are not deprived of 

 every means of defence. Let a movement take place in 

 the mass; and the egg, shifted from the upper layer, will 

 tumble into a pitfall of legs and mandibles; and this least 

 thing has every chance of being brought about in the dis- 

 ordered heap of caterpillars. The egg, sl tiny cylinder, 

 transparent as crystal, is extremely delicate: a touch 

 withers it, the least pressure crushes it. 



No, its place is not in the mass of provisions, for the 

 caterpillars, I repeat, are not sufficiently harmless. 

 Their paralysis is incomplete, as is proved by their con- 

 tortions when I irritate them and shown, on the other 

 hand, by a very important fact. I have sometimes 

 taken from Eumenes Amedei's cell a few heads of 

 game half transformed into chrysalids. It is evident 

 that the transformation was effected in the cell itself 

 and, therefore, after the operation which the Wasp 

 had performed upon them. Whereof does this operation 

 consist? I cannot say precisely, never having seen the 

 huntress at work. The sting most certainly has played 

 its part; but where? And how often? This is what 

 we do not know. What we are able to declare is that 

 the torpor is not very deep, inasmuch as the patient 

 sometimes retains enough vitality to shed its skin and 

 become a chrysalid. Everything thus tends to make us 



