The Hunting Wasps 



still manifests stop at that; and, though irri- 

 tability of the organs seems annihilated for 

 good, I have nevertheless succeeded in arous- 

 ing slight signs of it. Having placed some 

 recently exhumed and absolutely motionless 

 Weevils in a bottle containing sawdust moist- 

 ened with a few drops of benzine, I was not a 

 little astonished to see their legs and antennae 

 moving a quarter of an hour later. For a 

 moment I thought that I could recall them to 

 life. Vain hopel Those movements, the 

 last traces of a susceptibility about to be ex- 

 tinguished, soon cease and cannot be excited 

 a second time. I have tried this experiment 

 in some cases a few hours after the murderous 

 blow, in others as late as three or four days 

 after and always with the same success. 

 Still, the movement is feeble in proportion to 

 the time that has elapsed since the fatal 

 stroke. It always spreads from front to 

 back: the antennae first wave slowly to and 

 fro; then the front tarsi tremble and take 

 part in the oscillation; next the tarsi of the 

 second pair of legs and lastly those of the 

 third pair hasten to do likewise. Once move- 

 ment sets in, these different appendages exe- 

 cute their vibrations without any order, until 

 the whole relapses into immobility, which 

 32 



