More Hunting Wasps 



If I seize one of its legs or a point of the 

 skin with the tweezers, it suddenly shrivels 

 and curls up and swells out again, as it does 

 when in complete possession of its energies. 

 What would become of an egg laid on such 

 victuals? At the first closing of this ruth- 

 less vice, at the first contraction, it would be 

 crushed, or at least detached from its place; 

 and any egg removed from the point where 

 the mother has fastened it is bound to perish. 

 It needs, on the Cetonia's abdomen, a yield- 

 ing support which the bites of the new-born 

 larva will not set aquiver. The slightly ec- 

 centric sting gives none of this soft mass of 

 fat, always outstretched and quiescent. 

 Only on the following day, after the torpor 

 has made progress, does the larva become 

 suitably inert and limp. But it is too late; 

 and in the meantime the egg would be in 

 serious danger on this half-paralysed victim. 

 The sting, by straying less than a millimetre, 

 would leave the Scolia without progeny. 



I promised fractions. Here they are. 

 Let us consider the Tarantula and the Epeira 

 on whom the Calicurgi have just operated. 

 The first thrust of the sting is delivered in 

 the mouth. In both victims the poison- 

 fangs are absolutely lifeless : tickling with a 

 bit of straw never once succeeds in making 

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