The Young Queens 
of the triongulins, that had either no rival to 
meet, or already has conquered, takes pos- 
session of the egg and bursts it open. The 
ultimate victor has therefore this fresh 
enemy to subdue, but the conquest is easy, 
for the triongulin, deep in the satisfaction 
of its pre-natal hunger, clings obstinately 
to the egg, and does not even attempt to 
defend itself. It is quickly despatched, and 
the other is at last alone, and possessor of 
the precious egg it has won so well. It 
eagerly plunges its head into the opening 
its predecessor had made, and begins the 
lengthy repast which shall transform it into 
a perfect insect. But nature, that has de- 
creed this ordeal of battle, has, on the other 
hand, established the prize of victory with 
such miserly precision, that nothing short of 
an entire egg will suffice for the nourish- 
ment of a single triongulin; so that, as we 
are informed by M. Mayet, to whom we 
owe the account of these disconcerting ad- 
ventures, there is lacking to our conqueror 
the food its last victim consumed before 
death ; and incapable, therefore, of achieving 
the first stage of its transformation, it dies 
225 Pp 
