The Hunting Wasps 



and this applies all the more when the dif- 

 ferent ganglia are farther apart. When, on 

 the other hand, they are welded together, the 

 lesion of this common centre induces paraly- 

 sis of all the segments over which its ramifi- 

 cations are distributed. This is the case 

 with the Buprestes and the Weevils, whom 

 the Cerceres paralyse with a single thrust of 

 the sting, aimed at the common mass of the 

 nerve-centres of the thorax. But open a 

 Cricket. What do we find to set the three 

 pairs of legs in motion? We find what the 

 Sphex knew long before the anatomists: 

 three nervous centres at a great distance 

 one from the other. Hence the magnificent 

 logic of her needle-thrusts thrice repeated. 

 Proud science, bend the knee ! 



Despite the appearances that might make 

 us think otherwise, the Crickets immolated 

 by the Yellow-winged Sphex are no more 

 dead than the Weevils pierced by the Cer- 

 ceris' dart. The flexibility of the victims' 

 integuments, faithfully revealing the slight- 

 est internal movement, enables us in this case 

 to dispense with the artificial methods which 

 I employed to demonstrate the presence of 

 a remnant of life in the Cleoni of the Great 

 Cerceris. In fact, if we assiduously observe 

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