lyo The H tinting IVasps 



immense advantage, the experimenter's brutal 

 scalpel, which rips open where it ought to give 

 merely a light touch. Meanwhile, here are the 

 results which I have obtained from the three 

 victims, but in another direction. 



As only the movement of the legs has been 

 destroyed, without any wound save that of the 

 nerve-centres, which are the seat of that move- 

 ment, the insect must die of inanition and not 

 of its injuries. The experiment was conducted 

 as follows : two sound and healthy Ephippigers, 

 just as I picked them up in the fields, were im- 

 prisoned without food, one in the dark, the 

 other in the light. The second died in four 

 days, the first in five. This difference of a day 

 is easily explained. In the light, the insect 

 made greater exertions to recover its liberty ; 

 and, as every movement of the animal machine 

 is accompanied by a corresponding expenditure 

 of energy, a greater sum total of activity has 

 involved a more rapid consumption of the re- 

 serve force of the organism. In the light, there 

 is more restlessness and a shorter life ; in the 

 dark, less restlessness and a longer life, while 

 no food at all was taken in either case. 



One of my three stabbed Ephippigers was 

 kept in the dark, fasting. In her case there 

 were not only the conditions of complete absti- 

 nence and darkness, but also the serious wounds 



