A Scientific Slaughterer 



of the prothorax, behind the first pair of feet. 

 The fluid which I employ is ammonia; but 

 obviously any other liquid as powerful in its 

 action would produce the same results. The 

 nib being charged with ammonia as it might 

 be with a very small drop of ink, I give 

 the prick. The effects obtained differ enor- 

 mously, according to whether we experiment 

 upon species whose thoracic ganglia are close 

 together or upon species in which those same 

 ganglia are far apart. In the first class, my 

 experiments were made on Dung-beetles: the 

 Sacred Scarab ^ and the Wide-necked Scarab; 

 on Buprestes: the Bronze Buprestis; lastly, 

 on Weevils, in particular on the Cleonus 

 hunted by the heroine of this essay. In the 

 second class, I experimented on Ground- 

 beetles : Carabi, Procrustes, Chlaenii, Spho- 

 dri, Nebrice; on Longicornes: Saperdae and 

 Lamiae ; on Melasoma-beetles : Cellar-beetles, 

 Scauri, Asidae. 



In the Scarabaei, the Buprestes and the 

 Weevils, the effect is instantaneous: all move- 



^For the Sacred Scarab, or Sacred Beetle, cf. Insect 

 Life, by J. H. Fabre, translated by the author of 

 Mademoiselle Mori: chaps, i. and ii.; and The Life and 

 Love of the Insect, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alex- 

 ander Teixelra de Mattos: chaps, i. to iv. — Translator's 

 Note. 



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