The Larva and the Nymph 



transparent as crystal, a little attenuated and 

 as it were compressed in front, slightly 

 swollen at the back, and adorned on either 

 side with a narrow white thread formed of 

 the principal trachean ducts. The frail 

 creature occupies the same position as the 

 egg. Its head is, so to speak, planted at the 

 very spot where the upper end of the egg was 

 fixed; and all the remainder simply rests 

 upon the victim, without being fastened to it. 

 The grub's transparency enables us readily to 

 distinguish rapid undulations inside it, ripples 

 which follow one upon the other with mathe- 

 matical regularity and which, beginning in the 

 middle of the body, spread some forward 

 and some backward. These fluctuating 

 movements are due to the digestive canal, 

 which takes long draughts of the juices drawn 

 from the victim's body. 



Let us dwell for a moment upon a sight 

 which cannot fail to attract our attention. 

 The Wasp's prey lies on its back, motionless. 

 In the cell of the Yellow-winged Sphex, it is 

 a Cricket, or rather three or four Crickets 

 stacked one atop the other; In the cell of the 

 Languedocian Sphex, it is a single head of 

 game, but large in proportion, a fat-bellied 

 Ephippiger. The grub is lost should it hap- 

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