A Dangerous Diet 



sently It dissolves into noisome putrescence. 

 On the same bed of earth, under the same 

 glass cover, in the same moist, warm atmos- 

 phere, the larvae three-quarters eaten by the 

 Scoliae retain, on the contrary, the appear- 

 ance of healthy flesh. 



If a single stroke of my dagger, fashioned 

 from the point of a needle, results in im- 

 mediate death and early putrefaction; if the 

 repeated bites of the Scolia gut the crea- 

 ture's body and reduce it almost to a skin 

 without completely killing it, the striking con- 

 trast between these two results must be due 

 to the relative importance of the organs in- 

 jured. I destroy the nerve-centres and in- 

 evitably kill my larva, which is putrid by the 

 following day; the Scolia attacks the reserves 

 of fat, the blood, the muscles and does not 

 kill its victim, which will provide it with 

 wholesome food until the end. But it is 

 clear that, if the Scolia were to set to work 

 as I did, there would be nothing left, after 

 the first few bites, but an actual corpse, dis- 

 charging fluids which would be fatal to it 

 within twenty-four hours. The mother, it 

 is true, in order to assure the immobility of 

 her prey, has injected the poison of her sting 

 into the nerve-centres. Her operation can- 

 not be compared with mine in any respect. 

 6i 



