MABCHAL ON CERCERIS ORNATA. 207 



then, is to render the bee motionless so that it can be conven- 

 iently handled. 



Conclusions. 



1. The effect of the sting is to produce inhibition; this per- 

 mits Cerceris easily to carry the bee into her hole. 



2. Inhibition ceases, but the nervous system has been so in- 

 jured that the insect does not recover. Still motion may per- 

 sist for a long time if there has been no malaxation. 



2. Malaxation by the effusion of blood which it produces,, 

 and also by the lesion of the nervous chain, strikes a fatal blow 

 at voluntary movement, and leads to the suppression of animal 

 life in about twenty-four hours. 



State of Preservation of Yietims. 



Fabre has preserved the beetles of a Cerceris for more than 

 a month without their losing their freshness. The crickets of the^ 

 yellow-winged SpJiex were preserved for a month and a half, 

 and the victims of another Spliex for two or three weeks. Move- 

 ments, either voluntary or provoked by electricity, betrayed the 

 presence of life. Fabre's conclusions are as follows: 



1. Vegetative life is preserved for several weeks after a sting 

 from one of these Sphecidae. 



2. The preser\"ation of the vegetative life is necessary to the 

 larva. 



Are these conclusions applicable to Cerceris ornata'i The 

 bees which have been stung and malaxed, when put into paper- 

 cornets, dried up at once. The muscles were entirely dry, like 

 parchment, in five or six days. 



Those which had been only stung did not dry so quickly, and 

 sometimes eight or ten days after movement ceased the muscles 

 were still easily dissociable. These results demonstrate that the 

 result of the complete operation is speedy death. 



The bees which were taken from nests never dried up so 

 quickly as those which were operated on artificially, being killed 



