The Hunting Wasps 



sect overpowers its prey and reduces it to the 

 condition of helplessness which the safety of 

 the larva requires. The game hunted, the 

 caterpillar, possesses a very different struc- 

 ture from that of the victims which we have 

 seen immolated hitherto: Buprestes, Wee- 

 vils, Locusts and Ephippigers. The crea- 

 ture is composed of a series of similar rings 

 or segments set end to end. Three of these 

 segments, the first three, carry the real legs, 

 which will become the legs of the future 

 Moth; others have membranous legs, or pro- 

 legs, which are peculiar to the caterpillar 

 and not represented in the Moth; others 

 lastly have no limbs at all. Each segment 

 has its nerve-nucleus, or ganglion, the seat 

 of sensibility and movement, so that the 

 nervous system includes twelve distinct cen- 

 tres, separated one from the other, without 

 counting the ganglionic neck-piece placed 

 under the skull and comparable, in a manner 

 of speaking, with the brain. 



We are here very far removed from the 

 nerve-centralization of the Weevils and the 

 Buprestes, which lends itself so well to gen- 

 eral paralysis by a single prick of the sting; 

 we are also a long way from the thoracic 

 ganglia which the Sphex smites, one after 

 262 



