Advanced Theories 



Eristalis, who is bigger than her assailant. 

 The Fly is unarmed, but powerful; a shrill 

 buzz of her wings tells of her desperate re- 

 sistance. The Wasp carries a dagger; but 

 she does not understand the methodical use 

 of it, is unacquainted with the vulnerable 

 points so well-known to the marauders who 

 need a prey that keeps fresh for long. What 

 her nurselings want is a mess of Flies that 

 moment reduced to pulp ; and, so long as this 

 is achieved, the Wasp cares little how the 

 game is killed. The sting therefore is used 

 blindly, without any method. We see it 

 pointed indifferently at the victim's back, 

 sides, head, thorax or belly, according to the 

 chances of the scuffle. The Hunting Wasp 

 paralysing her victim acts like a surgeon who 

 directs his scalpel with a skilled hand; the 

 Social Wasp killing her prey behaves like a 

 common assassin who stabs at random. For 

 this reason, the Eristalis' resistance is pro- 

 longed; and her death is the result of scissor- 

 cuts rather than dagger-thrusts. When the 

 victim is duly garrotted, motionless between 

 its ravisher's legs, the head falls under a snap 

 of the mandibles; then the wings are cut off 

 at their juncture with the shoulder; the legs 

 follow, severed one by one; lastly, the belly 

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