researches. But he did not, could not see the audacious insect at work.
It is one of the Chalcididæ, about one-fifth or one-sixth of an inch in
length; entirely black, with knotty antennæ, which are slightly thicker
towards their extremities. The unsheathed ovipositor is implanted in the
under portion of the abdomen, about the middle, and at right angles to
the axis of the body, as in the case of the Leucospis, the pest of the
apiary. Not having taken the precaution to capture it, I do not know
what name the entomologists have bestowed upon it, or even if this dwarf
exterminator of the Cigale has as yet been catalogued. What I am
familiar with is its calm temerity, its impudent audacity in the
presence of the colossus who could crush it with a foot. I have seen as
many as three at once exploiting the unfortunate female. They keep close
behind the Cigale, working busily with their probes, or waiting until
their victim deposits her eggs.

The Cigale fills one of her egg-chambers and climbs a little higher in
order to bore another hole. One of the bandits runs to the abandoned
station, and there, almost under the claws of the giant, and without the
least nervousness, as if it were accomplishing some meritorious action,
it unsheathes its probe and thrusts it into the column of eggs, not by
the open aperture, which is bristling with broken fibres, but by a
lateral fissure. The probes works slowly, as the wood is almost intact.
The Cigale has time to fill the adjacent chamber.

As soon as she has finished one of these midges, the very same that has
been performing its task below her, replaces her and introduces its
disastrous egg. By the time the Cigale departs, her ovaries empty, the
majority of the egg-chambers have thus received the alien egg which will
work the destruction of their contents. A small, quick-hatching grub,
richly nourished on a dozen eggs, will replace the family of the Cigale.