The Poison of the Bee 



pulsations of the abdomen, fluttcrings of the 

 antennae and a few feeble movements of the 

 legs. The tarsi cling firmly to the hair-pencil 

 which I hold out to them. I place the insect 

 on its back. It lies motionless. Its state is 

 absolutely the same as that to which the 

 Languedocian Sphex^ reduces her Ephippi- 

 gers. For three weeks on end, I see repeated in 

 all its details the spectacle to which I have been 

 accustomed in the victims extracted from the 

 burrows or taken from the huntress: the wide- 

 open mandibles, the quivering palpi and tarsi, 

 the ovipositor shuddering convulsively, the 

 abdomen throbbing at long intervals, the 

 spark of life rekindled at the touch of a pencil. 

 In the fourth week, these signs of life, which 

 have gradually weakened, disappear, but the 

 insect still remains irreproachably fresh. At 

 last a month passes; and the paralysed crea- 

 ture begins to turn brown. It is over; death 

 has come. 



I have the same success with a Cricket and 

 also with a Praying Mantis. In all three 

 cases, from the point of view of long- 

 maintained freshness and of the signs of life 

 proved by slight movements, the resemblance 



^Cf. Insect Life: chap. x. — Translator's Note. 



355 



