The Common Wasp 



tablishment, for the adult Staphylinus is ac- 

 companied by her larva. I also find Wood- 

 lice and Millipedes, of the genus Polydesma, 

 both inferior trenchermen, feeding probably 

 on the humours oozing from the dead. 



Let us also mention one of the outstanding 

 insect-eaters, the tiniest of our mammals, the 

 Shrew, who is smaller than the Common 

 Mouse. At the time of the final cata- 

 strophe, when sickness has calmed the ag- 

 gressive fury of the Wasps, the visitor with 

 the pointed muzzle steals into the nest: Ex- 

 ploited by a pair of Shrew-mice, the dying 

 crowd is soon reduced to a heap of remnants 

 which the maggots end by clearing out. 



The ruins themselves will perish. A cat- 

 erpillar that develops later into a mean-look- 

 ing, whitish Moth; a Cryptophagus, a tiny 

 reddish Beetle; and a larva of one of the 

 Dermestes * (Attagenus pellio), clad in scaly 

 gold velvet, gnaw the floors of the stages and 

 crumble the whole dwelling. A few pinches 

 of dust, a few shreds of brown paper are 

 all that remains, by the return of spring, of 

 the Vespian city and its thirty thousand in- 

 habitants. 



1 Bacon-beetles. Translator's Note. 



