242 The Himting Wasps 



pillar, possesses a very different structure from 

 that of the victims which we have seen immo- 

 lated hitherto : Buprestes, Weevils, Locusts 

 and Ephippigers. The creature is composed of 

 a series of similar rings or segments set end to 

 end. Three of these segments, the first three, 

 carry the real legs, which will become the legs of 

 the future Moth ; others have membranous legs, 

 or pro-legs, which are pecuUar to the caterpillar 

 and not represented in the Moth ; others, lastly, 

 have no limbs at all. Each segment has its 

 nerve-nucleus, or ganglion, the seat of sensi- 

 bihty and movement, so that the nervous system 

 includes twelve distinct centres, separated one 

 from the other, without counting the ganglionic 

 neck-piece placed under the skull and com- 

 parable, in a manner of speaking, with the brain. 

 We are here very far removed from the 

 nerve-centralization of the Weevils and the 

 Buprestes, which lends itself so well to general 

 paralysis by a single prick of the sting ; we are 

 also a long way from the thoracic ganglia which 

 the Sphex smites, one after the other, to suppress 

 all movement in her Crickets. Instead of a 

 soHtary centralized point or of three nerve- 

 nuclei, the caterpillar has twelve, separated 

 from one another by the distance between one 

 segment and the next and arranged like a string 

 of beads on the ventral surface, along the 



