V ONE SKILFUL TO SLAY jj 



and one sees that the creature, even a month after 

 inoculation, draws them back quickly at the least 

 touch — an evident proof that life has not completely- 

 abandoned the inert body. This movement is not 

 rare with Weevils wounded by the Cerceris. 



Injection of ammonia always stops motion at 

 once in Buprestids, Weevils, and Scarabaeus, but it 

 is not always possible to put the creature into the 

 state just described. If the wound be too deep, 

 or the little drop instilled be too strong, at the 

 end of two or three days the victim really dies, and 

 after two or three days there is but a decaying body. 

 If, on the contrary, the prick be too slight, it recovers 

 the power of motion, at least partially, after being 

 inanimate for more or less time. The Cerceris 

 herself may operate clumsily, just like man, for I 

 have seen this kind of resurrection in a victim 

 struck by the dart of a Hymenopteron. Sphex 

 flavipennis, whose history will presently occupy us, 

 heaps in her dens young crickets struck by her 

 venomed lancet. From one of her holes I have 

 taken three poor crickets whose extreme flabbiness 

 would, in any other circumstances, have denoted 

 death. But here, again, death was only apparent. 

 Placed in a bottle, these crickets kept quite fresh 

 but motionless for nearly three weeks, after which 

 two grew mouldy, while the third came partly to 

 life — that is to say, it regained motion of the antennae, 

 mouth -parts, and, which is more remarkable, of 

 the first two pairs of feet. If even the skill of the 

 Hymenopteron sometimes fails to benumb a victim 

 for good and all, can one expect constant success 

 with the rough experiments of man ? 



