154 INSECT LIFE xi 



of the least resistance, whereas previously the feet, 

 though unable to move in the manner necessary 

 for walking, vigorously resisted being dragged along. 

 This is the fact in all its eloquence. While leaving 

 intact the thin, supple membrane of the neck, the 

 insect finds a way into the skull with the point of its 

 mandibles, and bruises the brain. There is neither 

 effusion of blood nor wound, but merely external 

 compression. Of course I kept the paralysed 

 ephippiger under inspection in order to watch the 

 consequences of the operation at my leisure, and 

 equally of course I hastened to repeat on living 

 specimens what the Sphex had taught me. I will 

 now compare my results with hers. 



Two ephippigers, whose cervical ganglia I com- 

 pressed with pincers, fell quickly into a state like 

 that of her victims, only they sounded their harsh 

 cymbals if irritated by the point of a needle, and 

 their feet made some irregular languid movements. 

 The difference in the results obtained doubtless 

 arises from the fact that my victim had not been 

 previously stung in the thoracic ganglia, as those 

 had been which the Sphex had struck in the 

 breast. Allowing for this important point, it 

 will be seen that I made no bad pupil, and imitated 

 my teacher in physiology, the Sphex, not ill. I own 

 that it was not without a certain satisfaction that I 

 found I had done almost as well as the insect does. 



As well ! What have I just said ? Wait a little, 

 and it will be seen that I had to attend the Sphex's 

 school for many another day. For my two ephip- 

 pigers speedily died — died outright, and after three or 

 four days I had only decaying bodies under my eyes. 



