More Hunting Wasps 



eyed broth without ripping up the Bee, a 

 proceeding which would damage the game 

 when it is hunted on behalf of the larvae, 

 without resorting to the murderous extirpa- 

 tion of the crop. She must, by able han- 

 dling, by skilful pressure, make the Bee dis- 

 gorge, she must milk her, in a manner of 

 speaking. Suppose the Bee stung behind 

 the corselet and paralysed. That deprives 

 her of her power of locomotion, but not of 

 her vitality. The digestive organs in parti- 

 cular retain or very nearly retain their norm- 

 al energy, as is proved by the frequent ex- 

 cretions that take place In the paralysed prey, 

 so long as the intestine is not empty, as is 

 proved above all by the victims of the Lan- 

 guedocian Sphex,^ those helpless creatures 

 which I used to keep alive for forty days on 

 end with a soup consisting of sugar and wa- 

 ter. It is absurd to hope, without therapeu- 

 tic means, without a special emetic, to coax 

 a sound stomach into emptying Its contents. 

 The stomach of the Bee, who is jealous of 

 her treasure, would lend itself to the process 

 even less readily than another. When para- 

 lysed, the insect is inert; but there are always 

 internal energies and organic forces which 

 will not yield to the manipulator's pressure. 



1 Cf. The Hunting Wasp: chaps, viii. to x. — Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



262 



