The Larva and the Ny^nph 87 



were compressed in front, slightly swollen at the 

 back and adorned on either side with a narrow 

 white thread formed of the principal trachean 

 ducts. The frail creature occupies the same 

 position as the ^^;g. Its head is, so to speak, 

 planted at the very spot where the upper end 

 of the egg was fixed ; and all the remainder 

 simply rests upon the victim, without being 

 fastened to it. The grub's transparency en- 

 ables us readily to distinguish rapid undula- 

 tions inside it, ripples which follow one upon the 

 other with mathematical regularity and which, 

 beginning in the middle of the body, spread 

 some forward and some backward. These fluc- 

 tuating movements are due to the digestive 

 canal, which takes long draughts of the juices 

 drawn from the victim's body. 



Let us dwell for a moment upon a sight 

 which cannot fail to attract our attention. The 

 Wasp's prey lies on its back, motionless. In 

 the cell of the Yellow-winged Sphex it is a 

 Cricket, or rather three or four Crickets stacked 

 one atop the other ; in the cell of the Langue- 

 docian Sphex it is a single head of game, but 

 large in proportion, a fat-bellied Ephippiger. 

 The grub is lost should it happen to be torn 

 from the spot whence it derives life ; a fall 

 would be the end of it, for, weak as it is and 

 deprived of all means of motion, how could it 



