1782. NORFOLK. 301 



ferrated hminze mentioned as the diftinguim- 122. 

 ing character of that genus, I put one of the TENTHREDO 

 females to a flight degree of torture, expecting THETUCXE? 

 fhe would have unfheathed them as a weapon ; 

 but I was diflippointed : I therefore (that her 

 pain might be as momentary as poflible) fevered 

 her head from her body ; thinking that in the 

 agony of death fhe might difclofe them ; but 

 I was flill left in the dark : for, to my aftonifli- 

 ment, inllead of death enfuing immediately 

 the decapitation, her body feemed to experi- 

 ence no great degree of inconveniency from it. 

 She ran upon the table. I turned her upon her 

 back : fhe recovered her legs as nimbly as ever ; 

 fpread out her wings, and actually made an at- 

 tempt to fly. Three hours after her head was 

 fevered, her body was to appearance perfectly 

 alive ; and how long fhe lived afterwards I know 

 not ; for, conceiving that without the head 

 the body could not be fenfible of pain, I did 

 not preferve or deRroy it. 



My curiofity, however, was afterwards gra- 

 tified in a manner I had not expected ; for 

 putting a frcfh turnep-leaf into ths glafs, as 

 food for fome caterpillars which were aifo in 

 it, I perceived one of the female flies pecu- 

 liarly bufy in examining the different parts of 



the 



