PARALYZED PROVENDER 441 



energetic than before. Every hour now brings a weaker re- 

 action ; at length there is little or no response to my efforts. 



The sting of the roach-killer and that of the lumberess 

 thrust their victims into painless sleep. The poison's action 

 is not unlike alcohol. At first a powerful sleeping potion 

 followed by a gradual, ever-increasing tying of the muscles, 

 until they cease to move at all. Such is the second condition 

 of paralyzed provender. 



Let us now endeavor to discover the causes leading to 

 these two distinct types of paralysis as we have observed them 

 in the prey of solitary wasps. Having already glanced at 

 the spider's anatomy, it will be well for the sake of compari- 

 son, to look into the anatomy of the roach. In the first place 

 the two belong to different phyla; one is an arachnid, the 

 other an insect. Therefore they will differ physically. 



In the spider we find the ganglions clustered about the 

 oesophagus, concentrated into one particular section of the 

 body and easily accessible. In the roach they are spread, 

 more or less, throughout the insect. There is a brain, three 

 pairs of ganglions in the thorax, followed by six pairs in the 

 abdomen, a problem indeed for the wasp who would paralyze 

 such a complicated creature. 



I have not been fortunate in observing either the roach- 

 killer or the lumberess in the act of stinging their prey, but 

 here is what I believe to be the case in view of the facts. To 

 reach the isolated nerve centers at the outset, to bring instant 

 and complete paralysis to her victim, the wasp would find it 

 necessary to drive her sting into as many different places as 

 there are ganglions. Judging from the condition of the prey 

 it is a feat quite beyond either the roach-killer or the lum- 

 beress. Therefore they must depend upon one or two thrusts 

 to stun the insects. As the sting plunges home it ejects a 

 tiny drop of poison which gradually spreads throughout the 

 victim's body, bringing on, in due time, the gradual paralysis 

 that we have observed. 



