THE TVVO-BANDED SCOLIA 147 



back. Suddenly, it buckles and, with a jerk of the head, 

 flings the enemy to a distance. Undaunted by all her 

 failures, the Hymenopteron stands up, brushes her wings 

 and recommences the assault of the colossus, almost 

 always by clambering on the grub by the rear extremity. 

 At last, after any number of fruitless attempts, the Scolia 

 succeeds in attaining the proper position. She lies across 

 the grub ; her mandibles hold a point of the thorax on 

 the dorsal face tight-gripped ; her body, curved into an 

 arch, passes under the grub and reaches the neighbour- 

 hood of the neck with the tip of the belly. Placed in 

 grave danger, the Cetonia twists, buckles, unbuckles, 

 turns and -WTithes. The ScoUa does not interfere. Hold- 

 ing her victim in a close embrace, she turns ^vith it, allows 

 herself to be dragged above, below, aside, at the mercy 

 of the contortions. So fierce is her determination that I 

 am now able to remove the glass bell and watch the 

 details of the drama in the open. 



Soon, notwithstanding the tumult, the tip of the Scolia's 

 belly feels that the suitable point is found. Then and 

 not till then is the dart unsheathed. It is driven home. 

 The thing is done. The grub, but now active and swollen, 

 suddenly becomes inert and hmp. It is paralyzed. 

 Henceforth, all movement ceases, save in the antennae 

 and mouth-pieces, v/hich will continue for a long time to 

 declare a remnant of life. 



The place of the wound has never varied in the series 

 of struggles under the glass bell : it occupies the middle 

 of the dividing line between the prothorax and the meso- 

 thorax, on the ventral surface. Let us observe that the 

 Cerceris, who operates upon Weevils, which insects have a 

 concentrated nervous chain like that of the Cetonia grub, 

 inserts her sting at the same point. The similarity of the 



