THE GLOW-WORM 277 



and then turn the shell, with the opening downwards. 

 The contents flow out as easily as would soup from an 

 overturned saucepan. When the sated diners retire 

 from this gruel, only insignificant leavings remain. 



The matter is obvious. By repeated tiny bites, similar 

 to the tweaks which we saw distributed at the outset, 

 the flesh of the Mollusc is converted into a gruel on 

 which the various banqueters nourish themselves without 

 distinction, each working at the broth by means of some 

 special pepsine and each taking his own mouthfuls of it. 

 In consequence of this method, which first converts the 

 food into a liquid, the Glow-worm's mouth must be very 

 feebly armed apart from the two fangs which sting the 

 patient and inject the anesthetic poison and at the same 

 time, no doubt, the serum capable of turning the solid 

 flesh into fluid. Those two tiny implements, which can 

 just be examined through the lens, must, it seems, have 

 some other object. They are hollow, and in this re- 

 semble those of the Ant-lion, who sucks and drains her 

 capture without having to divide it; but there is this 

 great difference, that the Ant-lion leaves copious rem- 

 nants, which are afterwards flung outside the funnel- 

 shaped trap dug in the sand, whereas the Glow-worm, 

 that expert liquefier, leaves nothing, or next to nothing. 

 With similar tools, the one simply sucks the blood of his 

 prey and the other turns every morsel of his to account, 

 thanks to a preliminary liquefaction. 



And this is done with exquisite precision, though the 

 equilibrium is sometimes anything but steady. My 

 rearing-glasses supply me with magnificent examples. 



