The Eumenes 



not sufficiently harmless. Their paralysis 

 is incomplete, as is proved by their contor- 

 tions when I irritate them and evidenced 

 moreover by a very important fact. 1 have 

 sometimes taken from the cell of Eumenes 

 Amadei a few head of game half-trans- 

 formed into chrysalids. It is evident that 

 the transformation was effected in the cell 

 itself and therefore after the operation which 

 the Wasp had performed upon them. 

 Whereof does this operation consist? I 

 cannot say precisely, never having seen the 

 huntress at work. The sting most certainly 

 has played its part; but where? And how 

 often? This is what we do not know. 

 What we can declare is that the torpor is 

 not very profound, inasmuch as the patient 

 sometimes retains enough vitality to shed its 

 skin and become a chrysalis. Everything 

 thus tends to make us ask by what stratagem 

 the egg is shielded from danger. 



This stratagem I longed to discover; I 

 would not be put off by the scarcity of nests, 

 by the irksomeness of the search, by the risk 

 of sunstroke, by the time taken up in the 

 vain breaking open of unsuitable cells; I 

 meant to see and I saw. Here is my 

 method : with the point of a knife and a pair 

 of nippers, I make a side opening, a window, 

 23 



