I have elsewhere, speaking of the Scolia [a digger wasp] devouring
the Cetonia grub, enlarged upon this refined art of eating which
consists in consuming the prey while killing it only at the last
mouthfuls. The Anthrax has the same requirements as his
competitors who dine off fresh viands. He needs meat of that day,
taken from a single joint that has to last a fortnight without
going bad. His method of consuming reaches the highest level of
art: he does not cut into his prey, he sips it little by little
through his sucker. In this way, any dangerous risk is averted.
Whether he imbibe at this spot or at that, even if he abandon the
sucking process and resume it later, by no accident can he ever
attack that which it is incumbent upon him to respect lest
corruption supervene. The others have a fixed position on the
victim, a place at which their mandibles have to bite and enter.
If they move away from it, if they miss the appointed path, they
imperil their existence. The Anthrax, more highly favored, puts
his mouth where it suits him; he leaves off when he pleases and
when he pleases starts again.

Unless I labor under a delusion, I think that I see the necessity
for this privilege. The egg of the carnivorous burrower is firmly
fixed on the victim at a point which varies considerably, it is
true, according to the nature of the prey, but which is uniform
for the same species of prey; moreover--and this is an important
condition--the point of adhesion of that egg is always the head,
whereas the egg of a bee, of the Osmia, for instance, is fixed to
the mess of honey by the hinder end. When hatched, the new born
Wasp grub has not to choose for itself, at its risk and peril, the
suitable point at which to take the first cut in the quarry
without fear of killing it too quickly: all that it need do is to