The Glow- Worm and Other Beetles 



most say, lightning methods of the Lampyris, 

 who, beyond a doubt, instils some poison or 

 other by means of his grooved hooks. 



Here is the proof of the sudden efficacity 

 of those twitches, so mild in appearance : 

 I take the Snail from the Lampyris, who has 

 operated on the edge of the mantle some four 

 or five times. I prick him with a fine needle 

 in the fore-part, which the animal, shrunk 

 into its shell, still leaves exposed. There is 

 no quiver of the wounded tissues, no reaction 

 against the brutality of the needle. A 

 corpse itself could not give fewer signs of 

 life. 



Here is something even more conclusive: 

 chance occasionally gives me Snails attacked 

 by the Lampyris while they are creeping 

 along, the foot slowly crawling, the ten- 

 tacles swollen to their full extent. A few 

 disordered movements betray a brief excite- 

 ment on the part of the mollusc and then 

 everything ceases: the foot no longer slugs; 

 the front-part loses its graceful swan-neck 

 curve; the tentacles become limp and give 

 way under their weight, dangling feebly like 

 a broken stick. This conditions persists. 



Is the Snail really dead? Not at all, for 

 I am free to resuscitate the seeming corpse. 

 After two or three days of that singular con- 

 6 



