A Dangerous Diet 



Scolia's bites. The victim is in possession 

 of its full power of sensation; and it ex- 

 presses the pain experienced as best it may, 

 by contractions. Embarrassed by these tre- 

 mors, these twitches of suffering flesh, in- 

 commoded at every mouthful, the grub chews 

 away at random and kills the larva almost 

 as soon as it has started on it. In a victim 

 paralysed by the regulation sting, the condi- 

 tions would be very different. There are 

 no external movements, nor any internal 

 movements either, when the mandibles bite, 

 because the victim is insensible. The grub, 

 undisturbed in any way, is then able, with 

 an unfaltering tooth, to pursue its scientific 

 method of eating. 



These marvellous results interested me too 

 much not to inspire me with fresh devices 

 when I pursued my investigations. Earlier 

 enquiries had taught me that the larvs of 

 the Digger-wasps are fairly indifferent to 

 the nature of the game, though the mother 

 always supplies them with the same diet. I 

 had succeeded in rearing them on a great 

 variety of prey, without paying regard to 

 their normal fare. I shall return to this 

 subject later, when I hope to demonstrate 

 its great philosophical significance. Let us 

 profit by the&e data and try to discover what 

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