72 INSECT LIFE v 



physiologist versed in the anatomy of insects could 

 determine beforehand is by no means enough ; the 

 Hymenopteron has a far greater difficulty to overcome, 

 and she overcomes it with a mastery which fills one 

 with amazement. We said that the nervous centres 

 controlling the organs of motion in an insect are 

 three. These are more or less distant from each 

 other, but sometimes, though rarely, near together. 

 They possess a certain independence of action, so 

 that an injury to one does not cause, at all events 

 immediately, more than paralysis of members 

 connected with it, while the other ganglia and 

 their corresponding members are not affected by it. 

 To reach these three sources of motion one after 

 the other, the second farther off than the first, and 

 the last farther still, and by a single way, between 

 the first and second pairs of feet, seems impossible 

 for the sting, which is too short, and besides, so 

 difficult to aim well in such conditions. True, certain 

 Coleoptera have the three ganglia of the thorax 

 almost touching, and others have the two last com- 

 pletely united, soldered, smelted together. It is also 

 recognised that in proportion as the different nervous 

 centres combine and centralise, the characteristic 

 functions of animality become more perfect, and 

 also, alas, more vulnerable. Those Coleoptera with 

 centres of motion so near that they touch or even 

 gather into one mass, and so are made part of each 

 other, would be instantly paralysed by one sting ; or 

 if several were needed, at all events the ganglia to be 

 paralysed are all collected under the point of the 

 dart. 



Now which are the Coleoptera so specially easy 



