FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



or the nervous system can pass. As these two essentials 

 remain uninjured, life goes on until the fluid contents of 

 the skin are entirely exhausted. On the other hand, if 

 I myself injure the larva of the Bee, I disturb the nervous 

 or the air-conducting system, and the bruised part 

 spreads a taint all over the body. 



Liberty is a noble possession, even in an insignificant 

 grub; but it has its dangers everywhere. The Anthrax 

 escapes these dangers only on the condition of being, so 

 to speak, muzzled. It finds its own way into the Bee's 

 dwelling, quite independently of its mother. Unlike 

 most of the other flesh-eating larvae it is not fixed by its 

 mother's care at the most suitable spot for its meal. It 

 is perfectly free to attack its prey where it chooses. If it 

 had a set of carving-tools, of jaws and mandibles, it 

 would meet with a speedy death. It would split open 

 its victim and bite it at random, and its food would rot. 

 Its freedom of action would kill it. 



ii 



THE WAY OUT 



There are other grub-eaters which drain their victims 

 without wounding them, but not one, among those I 

 know, reaches such perfection in this art as the Anthrax- 

 grub. Nor can any be compared with the Anthrax as re- 

 gards the means brought into play in order to leave the 



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