A Dangerous Diet 



In my uncertainty, I try again. This time 

 I shall not interfere, so that my clumsiness 

 cannot be to blame. As I described when 

 speaking of the Cetonia-larva, the Oryctes- 

 larva now lies bound, quite alive, on a strip 

 of cork. As usual, I make a small opening 

 in the belly, to entice the grub by means 

 of a bleeding wound and facilitate its ac- 

 cess. I obtain the same negative result. In 

 a little while, the Oryctes is a noisome mass 

 on which the nursling lies poisoned. The 

 failure was foreseen: to the difficulties pre- 

 sented by a prey unknown to my charge was 

 added the commotion caused by the wrigc 

 gling of an unparalysed animal. 



We will try once more, this time with a 

 victim paralysed not by me, an unskilled 

 operator, but by an adept whose ability ranks 

 so high that it is beyond discussion. Chance 

 favours me to perfection: yesterday, in a 

 warm sheltered corner, at the foot of a sandy 

 bank, I discovered three cells of the Langue- 

 docian Sphex, each with its Ephippiger and 

 the recently laid egg. This is the game I 

 want, a corpulent prey, of a size suited to 

 the ScoHa and, what is more, in splendid 

 condition, artistically paralysed according to 

 rule by a master among masters. 



As usual, I install my three Ephippigers 

 73 



