214 BOMBAY DUCKS 



clasped it in order to carry it away. But she promptly 

 perceived that this prey was active, and then the drama 

 began, and ended with inconceivable rapidity. The 

 Cerceris faced her victim, seized its proboscis with her 

 powerful jaws, and grasped it vigorously, and while the 

 weevil reared itself up, pressed her forefeet hard on its 

 back as if to force open some ventral articulation. Then 

 the tail of the murderess slid under the Cleonus, curved 

 and darted its poisoned lancet swiftly two or three 

 times between the first and second pair of feet. In a 

 twinkling all was over. Without one convulsive move- 

 ment, with no motion of the limbs, such as accompany 

 the death of an animal, the victim fell motionless for 

 ever, as if annihilated. 



"It was at once wonderful and terrible in its rapidity. 

 Then the assassin turned the weevil on its back, placed 

 herself body to body with it, her legs on either side of 

 it, and flew off. Three times I renewed this experiment 

 . . . the same scene always occurred." 



In like manner does the wasp Rhynchium, of which 

 we are speaking, paralyse her victim, with, however, 

 one difference. There is in the weevil but one motor 

 centre, so that the wasp has only to stab it in one place 

 in order to completely paralyse it ; a caterpillar, how- 

 ever, is a composite creature, having several motor 

 centres ; hence it has to be stabbed in three places 

 before it is rendered quiescent in the neck, in the hind 

 part of the thorax, and in the abdomen. The first 

 stroke gives the front part of the body its quietus, the 

 second paralyses the front pro-legs, and the last stills 

 for ever the movements of the hind pro-legs. The 



