CHAPTER IV 



THE YELLOW-WINGED SPHEX 



T TNDER their powerful armour, which no 

 ^ dart can penetrate, the insects of the 

 Beetle tribe offer but a single vulnerable spot 

 to the sting-bearing enemy. This defect in 

 the breastplate is known to the murderess, 

 who drives in her poisoned dagger there and 

 at one blow strikes the three motor centres, 

 for she selects her victims from the Weevil 

 and Buprestis families, whose nervous sys- 

 tem is centralized to the requisite degree. 

 But what will happen when the prey is an 

 insect clad not in mail but in a soft skin, 

 which the Wasp can stab here or there in- 

 differently, in any part of the body that 

 chances to be exposed? In that case are the 

 blows still delivered scientifically? Like the 

 assassin who strikes at the heart to cut short 

 the dangerous resistance of his victim, does 

 the assailant follow the tactics of the Cer- 

 ceres and wound the motor ganglia by prefer- 

 ence? If that be so, then what happens 

 when these ganglia are some distance apart 

 6i 



