52 INSECT BEHAVIOR 



victim, the wasp would find it necessary to drive her sting into as 

 many different places as there are ganglions. Judging from the con- 

 dition of the prey it is a feat quite beyond either the roach-killer or 

 the lumberess. 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, bring- 

 ing on, in due time, the gradual paralysis that we have observed. 



Gradual paralysis would appear to be dangerous to young wasps. 

 They are very tender creatures. A cricket or roach thrashing about 

 within the cell would soon cause fatal bruises, but nature has looked 

 out for them nicely. If undisturbed, the roach and cricket lie quietly 

 enough. Upon their lower surfaces lie the wasp's white eggs, but 

 they are motionless. In forty-eight hours the wasplets emerge, tiny 

 creatures, three millimeters in length, whose baby mouths do not 

 disturb the sleepers. In another day they begin to really chew their 

 hosts, but by this time paralysis has set in. 



There is no significance in the two types of paralysis. They are 

 present in the spider and the roach, simply because of the physio- 

 logical difference existing between the two. Thus the grubs of the 

 roach-killer and the lumberess and those of the spider hunters live 

 much the same. One is as safe in its respective cell as another, so 

 there we shall leave them. 



