More Hunting Wasps 



bitten into. Despite the persistent nibbling 

 of the Scolia, life continues, holding at bay 

 the inroads of putrefaction until the mandi- 

 bles have given their last bites. Does not 

 this remnant of tenacious vitality in itself 

 show that the organs of primary importance 

 are the last to be attacked? Does it not 

 prove that there Is a progressive dismem- 

 berment passing from the less essential to 

 the Indispensable? 



Would you like, to see what becomes of a 

 Cetonia-larva when the organism is wounded 

 in its vital centres at the very beginning? 

 The experiment Is an easy one; and I made 

 a point of trying It. A sewing-needle, first 

 softened and flattened Into a blade, then re- 

 tempered and sharpened, gives me a most 

 delicate scalpel. With this Instrument I 

 make a fine incision, through which I remove 

 the mass of nerves whose remarkable struc- 

 ture we shall soon have occasion to study. 

 The thing is done: the wound, which does 

 not look serious, has left the creature a 

 corpse, a real corpse. I lay my victim on a 

 bed of moist earth. In a jar with a glass lid; 

 in fact, I establish It In the same conditions 

 as those of the larvae on which the Scoliae 

 feed. By the next day, without changing 

 shape, it has turned a repulsive brown; pre- 

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