The JVisdom of Instinct 1 55 



movements still continue ; but they are dis- 

 connected, though endowed with a certain 

 vigour. Incapable of standing on its legs, the 

 insect lies on its side or on its back. It flutters 

 its long antennae and also its palpi ; it opens 

 and closes its mandibles and bites as hard as 

 in the normal state. The abdomen heaves 

 rapidly and deeply. The ovipositor is brought 

 back sharply under the belly, against which it 

 almost lies flat. The legs stir, but languidly 

 and irregularly ; the middle legs seem more 

 torpid than the others. If pricked with a 

 needle, the whole body shudders convulsively ; 

 efforts are made to get up and walk, but with- 

 out success. In short, the insect would be full 

 of life, but for its inability to move about or 

 even to stand upon its legs. We have here 

 therefore a wholly -local paralysis, a paralysis of 

 the legs, or rather a partial abolition and ataxy 

 of their movements. Can this very incomplete 

 inertia be caused by some special arrangement 

 of the victim's nervous system, or does it come 

 from this, that the Wasp perhaps administers 

 only a single prick, instead of stinging each 

 ganglion of the thorax, as the Cricket-huntress 

 does ? I cannot tell. 



Still, for all its shivering, its convulsions, its 

 disconnected movements, the victim is none the 

 less incapable of hurting the larva that is 



