Objections and Rejoinders 



mistake of this length — negligible, you may 

 tell me — let the sting slant towards the 

 head instead of slanting towards the thorax; 

 and the result of the operation will be en- 

 tirely different. With a slant towards the 

 head, the cerebral ganglia are wounded and 

 their lesion causes sudden death. This is 

 the stroke of the Philanthus, who kills her 

 Bee by stinging her from below, under the 

 chin. The Scolia needed a motionless but 

 not dead victim, one that would supply 

 fresh victuals; she will now have only a 

 corpse, which will soon go bad and poison 

 the larva. 



With a slant towards the thorax, the sting 

 wounds the little mass of nerve-cells in the 

 thorax. This is the regulation stroke, the 

 one which will induce paralysis and leave the 

 small amount of life needed to keep the 

 provisions fresh. A millimetre higher kills; 

 a millimetre lower paralyses. On this tiny 

 deviation the salvation of the Scolia race 

 depends. You need not fear that the op- 

 erator will make any mistake in this mi- 

 crometrical performance: her sting always 

 slants towards the thorax, although the op- 

 posite inclination is just as practicable and 

 easy. What would be the outcome of a 

 there or thereabouts under these conditions ? 

 353 



