PROVISION FOR REARING THE YOUNG. 1 29 



away; not a moment was to be lost, and without 

 reflection it leapt on the refractory victim. A lively 

 struggle followed, a duel to the death among the 

 blades of grass ; it was a truly dramatic spectacle, 

 the agile assailant whirling around the Cricket, 

 who kicked violently with his hind legs. If a blow 

 were to reach the Sphex it would be disem- 

 bowelled ; but it avoids the blows skilfully without 

 ceasing its own violent attack. At last the combat 

 ends ; the cricket is brought to earth, turned on to its 

 back, and maintained in this position by the Sphex. 

 Still on its guard, the latter seizes in its jaws one of 

 the filaments which terminate the abdomen of the 

 vanquished, placing its legs on the belly; with the 

 two posterior legs it holds the head turned back so as 

 to stretch the under side of the neck. The cricket is 

 unable to move and the conqueror's sting wanders 

 over the horny carapace seeking a joint, feeling for a 

 soft place in which it can enter to give the finishing 

 stroke. The dart at last reaches, between the head and 

 the neck, the spot where the hard portions articulate, 

 leaving between them a space without covering. The 

 joint in the armour is found. The Sphe^s abdomen 

 is agitated convulsively ; the sting penetrates the 

 skin, piercing a ganglion situated just beneath this 

 point ; the venom spreads and acts on the nervous 

 cells, which can no longer convey messages to the 

 muscles. That is not all ; the sting wanders over 

 the cricket's belly, this time seeking the joint 

 between the neck and the thorax; it finds it, 

 and is again thrust in with fury; a second ganglion 

 of the nervous chain is thus perforated and poisoned. 

 After these two wounds the victim is completely 

 paralysed. 



9 



