More Hunting Wasps 



She practices the method of the skilful 

 physiologist who induces anaesthesia; I go 

 to work like the butcher who chops, cuts and 

 disembowels. The sting leaves the nerve- 

 centres intact. Deprived of sensibility by 

 the poison, they have lost the power of pro- 

 voking muscular contractions; but who can 

 say that, numbed as they are, they no longer 

 serve to maintain a faint vitality? The 

 flame Is extinguished, but thei'e Is still a glow- 

 ing speck upon the wick. I, a rough blun- 

 derer, do more than blow out the lamp : I 

 throw away the wick and all Is over. The 

 grub would do the same If It bit straight Into 

 the mass of nerves. 



Everything confirms the fact: the Scolla 

 and the other Hunting Wasps whose provi- 

 sions consist of bulky heads of game are 

 gifted with a special art of eating, an ex- 

 quisitely delicate art wlilch saves a remnant 

 of life In the prey devoured, until It Is all 

 consumed. When the prey Is a small one, 

 this precaution Is superfluous. Consider, 

 for Instance, the Bembex-grubs In the midst 

 of their heap of Flies. The prey seized 

 upon Is broached on the back, the belly, the 

 head, the thorax. Indifferently. The larva 

 munches a given spot, which It leaves to 

 munch a second, parsing to a third and a 

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