FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



slender hooks of the Glow-worm can find their way in 

 through the gap, and in a moment the victim is made un- 

 conscious, and can be eaten in comfort. 



Now, a Snail perched on top of a stalk is very easily 

 upset. The slightest struggle, the most feeble wriggle 

 on his part, would dislodge him; he would fall to the 

 ground, and the Glow-worm would be left without food. 

 It is necessary for the Snail to be made instantly un- 

 conscious of pain, or he would escape; and it must be 

 done with a touch so delicate that it does not shake him 

 from his stalk. And that, I think, is why the Glow- 

 worm possesses his strange surgical instrument. 



II 



HIS ROSETTE 



The Glow-worm not only makes his victim insensible 

 while he is poised on the side of a dry grass-stalk, but 

 he eats him in the same dangerous position. And his 

 preparations for his meal are by no means simple. 



What is his manner of consuming it*? Does he 

 really eat, that is to say, does he divide his food into 

 pieces, does he carve it into minute particles, which are 

 afterwards ground by a chewing-apparatus^ I think 

 not. I never see a trace of solid nourishment on my 



[60] 



