150 INSECT LIFE 



XI 



far from the place of capture, and after the operation 

 which paralysed it. The ephippiger is in a state 

 like that of the cricket slain by S. flavipennis — a 

 certain proof that stings have been darted into the 

 ganglia of the thorax. Nevertheless, many move- 

 ments continue, but disconnected, though endowed 

 with a certain vigour. Unable to stand, the insect 

 lies on one side or on its back, moving its long 

 antennae and palpi rapidly, opening and closing its 

 mandibles, and biting as hard as in its normal con- 

 dition. The abdomen pants fast and deeply ; the 

 ovipositor is suddenly brought under the stomach, 

 which it almost touches. The feet move, but lan- 

 guidly and irregularly, the middle ones seemingly 

 more benumbed than the others. If touched with a 

 needle, the whole body starts wildly ; efforts are 

 made to rise and walk without success. In short, 

 the creature would be full of life but for the impossi- 

 bility of locomotion and even of getting on its feet. 

 There is then a paralysis altogether local — paralysis 

 of the feet, or rather partial abolition and ataxy of 

 movement in them. Is this very incomplete inertia 

 caused by some special disposition of the victim's 

 nervous system, or is it that only a single stab is given, 

 instead of wounding each ganglion of the thorax, as 

 does the huntress of grasshoppers ? I cannot say. 



However, for all its starts, its convulsions, its 

 irregular movements, the victim is none the less 

 unable to harm the larvae destined to devour it. I 

 have taken from the Sphex's burrow ephippigers 

 struggling just as much as in the first moments of 

 their semi-paralysis, and yet the feeble grub, born 

 but a few hours earlier, was biting the gigantic victim 



