The Cabbage-caterpillar 



precaution is needed : even though the mouth 

 leaves a large interval free, the swarm hastens 

 into the lighted chamber. All that remains 

 to be done is to close the apparatus before 

 moving it. The observer is now in control of 

 the multitude, without appreciable losses, and 

 is able to question it at will. 



We will begin by asking: 



"How do you manage to lodge your germs 

 inside the caterpillar?" 



This question and others of the same 

 category, which ought to take precedence of 

 everything else, are generally neglected by the 

 impaler of insects, who cares more for the 

 niceties of nomenclature than for glorious 

 realities. He classifies his subjects, dividing 

 them into regiments with barbarous labels, a 

 work which seems to him the highest express- 

 ion of entomological science. Names, nothing 

 but names: the rest hardly counts. The per- 

 secutor of the Pieris used to be called Micro- 

 gaster, that is to say, little belly : to-day she 

 is called Apantales, that is to say, the incom- 

 plete. What a fine step forward! We now 

 know all about it ! 



Can our friend at least tell us how "the 

 little belly" or "the incomplete" gets into the 



365 



