i6o The Himting Wasps 



ment employed is no longer the sting : the 

 insect, in its wisdom, has deemed compression 

 preferable to a poisoned thrust. Let us accept 

 its decision, for we shall see presently how 

 prudent it is to be convinced of our own ignor- 

 ance in the presence of the animal's knowledge. 

 Lest by editing my account I should fail to 

 give a true impression of the sublime talent of 

 this masterly operator, I here copy out my 

 note as I pencilled it on the spot, immediately 

 after the stirring spectacle. 



The Sphex finds that her victim is offering 

 too much resistance, hooking itself here and 

 there to blades of grass. She then stops to 

 perform upon it the following curious operation, 

 a sort of coup de grdce. The Wasp, still astride 

 her prey, forces open the articulation of the 

 neck, high up, at the nape. Then she seizes 

 the neck with her mandibles and, without 

 making any external wound, probes as far 

 forward as possible under the skull, so as to 

 seize and chew up the ganglia of the head. 

 When this operation is done, the victim is 

 utterly motionless, incapable of the least resist- 

 ance, whereas previously the legs, though de- 

 prived of the power of connected movement 

 needed for walking, vigorously opposed the 

 process of traction. 



There is the fact in all its eloquence. With 



