The Life of the Grasshopper 



stroys the muscular energy at its main seat; 

 and inertia supervenes, not suddenly and 

 completely, for the clumsily-constructed Lo- 

 cust has not the Bee's exquisite and frail 

 vitality, but still sufficiently, after the first 

 mouthfuls. Soon the kicking and the ges- 

 ticulating die down, all movement ceases and 

 the game, however big it be, is consumed in 

 perfect quiet. 



Among the hunters, I have before now 

 drawn a distinction between those who 

 paralyse and those who kill. 1 Both terrify 

 one with their anatomical knowledge. To- 

 day let us add to the killers the Thomisus, 

 that expert in stabbing in the neck, and the 

 Mantis, who, to devour a powerful prey at 

 her ease, deprives it of movement by first 

 gnawing its cervical ganglia. 



1 Cf. The Hunting Wasps: passim. — Translator's Note. 



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