152 INSECT LIFE 



XI 



of place or rising to its feet, thus — though I can- 

 not affirm it — economising dagger thrusts. 



If the half-paralysed ephippiger be harmless for 

 the larva established on a point of its body where 

 defence is impossible, things are otherwise for the 

 Sphex itself, which has to get it home. First, the prey 

 clutches bits of grass with its tarsi as it is dragged 

 along, being still able to use them pretty freely, 

 causing considerable difficulty in getting it onward. 

 The Sphex, heavily weighted by her load, is ex- 

 posed to exhaustion by her efforts to make her 

 prey let go its desperate hold on grassy places. But 

 that is the least of the difficulties ; it has full use of 

 its mandibles, which snap and bite with their old 

 vigour. Just in front of these terrible pincers is the 

 slender body of the spoiler, as the latter draws the 

 victim along. The antennae are grasped not far 

 from their root, so that the ephippiger, lying on its 

 back, has its mouth now opposite the abdomen, and 

 now the thorax of the Sphex, who, standing high 

 on her long legs, watches, I am convinced, in order 

 not to be seized by the mandibles gaping beneath. 

 A moment of forgetfulness, a slip, a mere nothing, 

 might bring her within reach of a pair of strong 

 nippers which would not let slip the chance of a piti- 

 less vengeance. In certain specially difficult cases, 

 if not always, the movement of these redoubtable 

 pincers must be stopped, and the harpoon-like tarsi 

 prevented from adding to the difficulties of transport. 



What will the Sphex do to obtain this result? 

 Man, and even a learned man, would hesitate, be- 

 wilder himself with vain attempts, and perhaps 

 despair of success. Let him come and take a lesson 



