THE LIFE OF A SOLITARY WASP 213 



nest. She carries it lengthwise, grasping it with all 

 her six legs. Having placed it in the cell, she flies out 

 of the window and soon returns with another cater- 

 pillar of the same kind. When this is safely deposited 

 in the nest she goes off for a third. Let us now 

 take out and examine one of these caterpillars. It is 

 apparently alive and unwounded, but, if alive, it is 

 certainly completely paralysed, since it never makes 

 the slightest motion. It is therefore evident that the 

 wasp has done something to it. Has she killed it or 

 merely paralysed it ? 



Leon Dufour, who first studied the ways of the 

 hymenopteron Cerceris, which stores the nest with 

 weevils, was of opinion that the wasp killed her prey 

 and injected into it some antiseptic liquid to keep it 

 fresh during the weeks or days her eggs took to hatch. 



The great French entomologist Fabre, whose work, 

 "Insect Life" (of which there is an English edition), 

 every one should read, discovered that the antiseptic 

 theory is incorrect and that the wasp only paralyses its 

 prey. He proved conclusively that the wasp merely 

 pricks the motor nerve centres of her victim and thus 

 completely paralyses it. He actually saw a Cerceris 

 wasp perform the operation. As she was returning 

 with a paralysed weevil, Fabre snatched it away from 

 her with pinchers, instantly throwing a living weevil 

 in exchange. " The mancEuvre," writes Fabre, " suc- 

 ceeded perfectly. As soon as the Cercercis felt the 

 prey slip under her body and escape her, she stamped 

 with impatience, turned round, and, perceiving the 

 weevil which had replaced hers, flung itself upon it and 



