The Nest-building Odynerus 



her operation, wielding her lancet with the 

 same certainty as if the patient were scent- 

 less. Thrice the sting is driven in, to kill 

 the motor nerves in the three ganglia of 

 the thorax. I repeat the experiment with 

 other subjects. Few refuse to attack the 

 prey; and each time three stings are admin- 

 istered with marked insistence at the point 

 under the neck. What I saw under arti- 

 ficial conditions Claire, on her side, saw un- 

 der conditions of liberty, in the open air, on 

 the leaves of the transplanted poplar. The 

 two collaborators, she and I, arrived at pre- 

 cisely the same result. 



The operation is rapidly performed. 

 Then the Odynerus, while dragging her 

 prey along, belly to belly, munches at its 

 neck for a considerable time, but without 

 causing any wound. This action may well 

 be equivalent to the practice of the Lan- 

 guedocian Sphex and the Hairy Ammo- 

 phila, 1 when, without inflicting a bruise, the 

 one nibbles at the neck of her Ephippiger and 

 the other at that of her Grey Worm, in or- 

 der to compress and paralyse the cervical 

 ganglia. I of course take possession of the 

 torpid larvae. The victim is absolutely in- 



1 The Hurting Wasfs: chaps, viii. to x. and xviii,— ■ 

 Translator's Note. 



211 



