vm LARVA AND NYMPH 103 



cicada, cricket, and ephippiger would display at 

 least some shuddering of the skin, which would detach 

 and throw off the minute larva, for which probably 

 all would be over, since it would risk falling into the 

 formidable, pincer-like jaws. 



But there is a part of the body where no such 

 peril is to be feared — the thorax wounded by the 

 sting. There and there only can the experimenter 

 on a recent victim dig down the point of a needle — 

 nay, pierce through and through without evoking 

 any sign of pain. And there the egg is invariably 

 laid — there the young larva always attacks its prey. 

 Gnawed where pain is no longer felt, the cricket 

 does not stir. Later, when the wound has reached 

 a sensitive spot, it will move of course as much as 

 it can ; but then it is too late — its torpor will be too 

 deep, and besides, its enemy will have gained 

 strength. That is why the egg is always laid on 

 the same spot, near the wounds caused by the sting 

 on the thorax, not in the middle, where the skin 

 might be too thick for the new-born grub, but on 

 one side — toward the junction of the feet, where the 

 skin is much thinner. What a judicious choice ! 

 what reasoning on the part of the mother when, 

 underground, in complete darkness, she perceives 

 and utilises the one suitable spot for her egg ! 



I have brought up Sphex larvae by giving them 

 successively crickets taken from cells, and have thus 

 been able, day by day, to follow the rapid progress 

 of my nurslings. The first cricket — that on which 

 the egg is laid — is attacked, as I have already said, 

 toward the point where the dart first struck — between 

 the first and second pairs of legs. At the end of a 



