The Fly -hunt 2']'^ 



alive or dead can therefore be decided only 

 according to the manner in which the victims 

 keep fresh. 



Placed in little screws of paper or in glass 

 tubes, the Crickets and Grasshoppers of the 

 Sphex, the caterpillars of the Ammophilae, and 

 the Beetles and Weevils of the Cerceres preserve 

 their flexibility of limb, their freshness of colour- 

 ing and the normal condition of their intestines 

 for weeks and months. They are not corpses 

 but bodies sunk in a lethargy from which there 

 is no awaking. The Flies of the Bembex behave 

 quite differently. The Eristales, the Syrphi — 

 in short, all those whose livery is at all brightly 

 coloured — soon lose the brilliancy of their attire. 

 The eyes of certain Gad-flies, magnificently 

 gilded, with three purple bands, very quickly 

 grow pale and dim, hke the eyes of a dying man. 

 All these Fhes, large and small, when placed in 

 little paper bags through which the air circulates 

 freely, dry up in two or three days and become 

 brittle ; all, when preserved against evapora- 

 tion in glass tubes in which the air is stationary, 

 go mouldy and decay. They are dead, there- 

 fore, really and truly dead, when the Wasp 

 brings them to her larva. Should some of them 

 still retain a remnant of Hfe, a few days or even 

 hours put an end to their agony. Consequently, 

 for lack of talent in the use of her dagger or for 



