The BuprestiS'htmting Cerceris 13 



I always found the same flexibility in their 

 joints. Nay more : I have dissected several 

 of them, after that lapse of time, and their 

 viscera were as perfectly preserved as if I had 

 used my scalpel on the insects' live entrails. 

 Now long experience has taught me that, even 

 in a Beetle of this size, when twelve hours have 

 passed after death in summer, the internal 

 organs become either dried up or putrefied, so 

 that it is impossible to make sure of their form 

 or structure. There is some special circum- 

 stance about the Buprestes killed by the 

 Cerceres that saves them from desiccation and 

 putrefaction for a week and perhaps two. But 

 what is this circumstance ? ' 



To explain this wonderful preservation of 

 the tissues which makes of an insect smitten 

 for many weeks past with a corpse-like inertness 

 a piece of game which does not even go high 

 and which, during the greatest heat of summer, 

 keeps as fresh as at the moment of its capture, 

 the able historian of the Buprestis-huntress 

 surmises the presence of an antiseptic fluid, 

 acting similarly to the preparations used for 

 preserving anatomical specimens. This fluid, 

 he suggests, can be nothing but the poison of 

 the Wasp, injected into the victim's body. A 

 tiny drop of the venomous liquid accompanying 



