More Hunting Wasps 



three or four centimetres long, distances are 

 very small. But a casual there or there- 

 abouts is a very different thing from the pre- 

 cision of which you speak." 



Oh, they are " thereabouts," are they? 

 We shall see ! You want figures, millimetres, 

 fractions? You shall have them! 



First I call to witness the Interrupted 

 Scolia. If the reader no longer has her me- 

 thod of operating in mind, I will beg him to 

 refresh his memory. The two adversaries, 

 in the preliminary conflict, may be fairly well 

 represented by two rings interlocked not in 

 the same plane but at right angles. The 

 Scolia grips a point of the Anoxia-grub's 

 thorax; she curves her body underneath it 

 and, while encircling the grub, gropes with 

 the tip of her abdomen along the median 

 line of the larva's neck. Owing to her 

 transversal position, the assailant is now free 

 to aim her weapon in a slightly slanting di- 

 rection, whether towards the head or to- 

 wards the thorax, at the same point of entry 

 In the larva's throat. Between the two op- 

 posite slants of the sting, which is itself very 

 short, what can the distance be? Two 

 millimetres,^ perhaps less. That is very lit- 

 tle. No matter: let the operator make a 



1 .078 inch. — Translator's Note. 

 352 



