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seeniini>' like an animated dagger directed at the moutli of her 

 prey. This moment of attack is the most dangerous of the 

 ordinary life of the insect and is always preceded by a care- 

 ful examination of the surroundings and the establishing of 

 special means of retreat by gnawing away retreats into the 

 rotten wood if this is necessary. Even with these precautions 

 taken, if the prey is active and particularly if it is a species 

 with powerful mandibular development the conflict may result 

 in the death of the 8cleroderr>ms. Many such deaths were 

 observed under experimental conditions when Sclerodermus 

 i mm i grans was placed with the larger Cerambycid larvae, such 

 as those of Lagocheiriis ohsoletus Thomson, Coptops aedificatnr 

 (Fabricius), and even Prosoplus hankil (Fahrieius), and 

 it was also the case in many instances with the endemic species 

 in conflict with Lepidopterous larvae. 



After the initial attack upou tlie head, tli? S'elo-odrnniis 

 proceeds more at leisure to paralyze the remainder of the larva 

 and this is frequently a long drawn out and protracted jiro- 

 ccss. While some particular effort seemed to be directed to- 

 Avard the presumed position of thoracic and anal ganglia, the 

 ftljsorvation of hundreds of siTch struggles has convinced me 

 that the stinging reflex is in no way precise but that sooner 

 or later the grub will be stung in every region which gives 

 a muscidar response to the feeding of the female or to her 

 exploratory movements over the body of the grub. To me it 

 seems the venom is injected into the body fluid and produces 

 its paralyzing effect when finally it comes in contact with the 

 nerve centers. Freqtiently the earlier stinging did not result in 

 comjilete and permanent paralysis and in cases where the 

 female was removed from the prey soon after oviposition, 

 the grubs revived and were able to dislodge the feeding larvae 

 of Sclerodermnis. The venom did not appear to arrest the 

 transformations of beetle larvae if they had been attacked dur- 

 ing the prepupal stage after completing feeding and instances 

 occurred where such larvae completed their transformations 

 after the larvae of Sclerodermus had begun to feed. 



