158 INSECT LIFE xi 



else was preferred — ephippigers, collected from time 

 to time on the dry stalks and prickly leaves of the 

 Eryngium. The three insects brought me by Emile 

 came from the shrike's larder. My pity for the 

 fallen nestlings had brought me this unhoped-for 

 good luck. 



Having made the circle of spectators draw back 

 and leave free passage for the Sphex, I took away 

 her prey with my pincers, giving her immediately in 

 exchange one of my ephippigers with an ovipositor 

 like that of the one abstracted. Stamping was the only 

 sign of impatience shown by the bereaved Hymen- 

 opteron. She ran at the new prey, too corpulent to 

 try to avoid pursuit, seized it with her mandibles by 

 the saddle-shaped corslet, got astride, and curving 

 her abdomen, passed its end under the ephippiger's 

 thorax. There doubtless the stings are given, but 

 the difficulty of observation prevents me from tell- 

 ing how many. The ephippiger — gentle victim — lets 

 itself be operated on unresistingly, like the dull 

 sheep of our slaughter-houses. The Sphex takes her 

 time and manoeuvres her lancet with a deliberation 

 favourable to the observer ; but the prey touches 

 the ground with the whole lower part of its body, 

 and what happens there cannot be seen. As 

 for interfering and lifting the ephippiger a little so 

 as to see better, it is not to be thought of; the 

 murderess would sheath her weapon and retire. The 

 next act is easy to observe. After having stabbed 

 the thorax, the end of the abdomen appears under 

 the neck, which she forces widely open by pressing 

 the nape. Here the sting enters with marked per- 

 sistence, as if more effective than elsewhere. One 



