440 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



ways. It is important, however, that the two have a single 

 habit in common. The roach victims of one and the cricket 

 prey of the other are affected in the same manner by the 

 stings of the two insects. 



I have before me two crickets of the hmiberess and a 

 dozen roaches of the roach-killer. These I collected from 

 the sealed nests of the insects. Therefore, to the best of my 

 knowledge they have been stung by the two wasps. I find 

 in the victims a physical condition entirely different from 

 that existing in the spiders paralyzed by the white-footed 

 wasp. So differently are they affected that I do not consider 

 them paralyzed at all. 



The roaches are capable of moving every pair of legs, 

 they can turn the head from side to side, also move all the 

 mouth parts and their antennae. But strange to say they 

 lie motionless unless I touch them with a needle or the tip 

 of my pencil. I place one of the roaches upon its feet. It 

 lies absolutely still as though dead until I touch one of the 

 protruding appendages at the posterior end of its body. As 

 I do so it jumps foreward witliout nuich effort, in the act 

 using each pair of legs. Now it waves its antennae back 

 and forth for a few seconds, wi-iggles its mouth and settles 

 back into its torpor. With the crickets I try a similar ex- 

 periment with the same result. ]Mucli tlie same thing appears 

 to take place in these victims as one observes in a sleeping 

 dog, whose foot has been tickled with a straw. It is quite 

 peaceful and unconscious, yet its nerves and muscles respond 

 automatically to rid the animal of its annoyer. 



Certainly then, the insects are not paralyzed at this time, 

 any more than a sleeping dog, for paralysis means the loss of 

 power to contract the muscles, an accomplishment of which 

 both the roaches and the crickets are still capable. 



Twenty-four hours later I experimented again upon my 

 subjects with a result similar to that of the previous day. 

 I let anotlier twenty-four hours pass. Tliis time, at the toucli 

 of my pencil point, the insect responded with a jump far less 



