CHAPTER IX 



THE WISDOM OF INSTINCT 



TO paralyse her prey, the Languedoclan 

 Sphex, I have no doubt, pursues the 

 method of the Cricket-huntress and drives her 

 lancet repeatedly into the Ephippiger's breast 

 in order to strike the ganglia of the thorax. 

 The process of wounding the nerve-centres 

 must be familiar to her; and I am convinced 

 beforehand of her consummate skill in that 

 scientific operation. This is an art tho- 

 roughly known to all the Hunting Wasps, 

 who carry a poisoned dart that has not been 

 given them in vain. At the same time, I 

 must confess that I have never yet succeeded 

 in witnessing the deadly performance. This 

 omission is due to the solitary life led by the 

 Languedocian Sphex. 



When a number of burrows are dug on a 

 common site and then provisioned, one has 

 but to wait on the spot to see how one hunt- 

 ress and now another arrive with the game 

 which they have caught. It is easy in these 

 circumstances to try upon the new arrivals the 

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