A Scientific Slaughterer 49 



information ? The fact is that, with these 

 minute details, we are now entering the domain 

 of the speciahst ; we are leaving the public 

 road for the path known to the few. 



I find the necessary information in M. Emile 

 Blanchard's fine work on the nervous system 

 of the Coleoptera.^ I see there that this cen- 

 tralization of the nervous system is the pre- 

 rogative, in the first place, of the Scarabseidae, 

 or Chafers ; but most of these are too large : 

 the Cerceris could perhaps neither attack them 

 nor carry them away ; besides, many of them 

 live in the midst of ordure where the Wasp, 

 herself so cleanly, would refuse to go in search 

 of them. Motor centres very close together are 

 found also in the Histers, who live on carrion 

 and dung, in an atmosphere of loathsome 

 smells, and who must therefore be eliminated ; 

 in the Scolyti, who are too small ; and lastly 

 in the Buprestes and the Weevils. 



What an unexpected light amid the original 

 darkness of the problem ! Among the im- 

 mense number of Beetles whereon the Cerceres 

 might seem able to prey, only two groups, the 

 Weevils and the Buprestes, fulfil the indis- 

 pensable conditions. They live far removed 

 from stench and filth, two qualities perhaps 



^ Annales des sciences naturelles, Series III., vol. v. — Author'' s 

 Note. 



D 



