food until the end. But it is clear that, if the Scolia were to set to work
as I did, there would be nothing left, after the first few bites, but an
actual corpse, discharging fluids which would be fatal to it within twenty-
four hours. The mother, it is true, in order to assure the immobility of
her prey, has injected the poison of her sting into the nerve-centres. Her
operation cannot be compared with mine in any respect. She practises the
method of the skilful physiologist who induces anaesthesia; I go to work
like the butcher who chops, cuts and disembowels. The sting leaves the
nerve-centres intact. Deprived of sensibility by the poison, they have lost
the power of provoking muscular contractions; but who can say that, numbed
as they are, they no longer serve to maintain a faint vitality? The flame
is extinguished, but there is still a glowing speck upon the wick. I, a
rough blunderer, do more than blow out the lamp: I throw away the wick and
all is over. The grub would do the same if it bit straight into the mass of
nerves.

Everything confirms the fact: the Scolia and the other Hunting Wasps whose
provisions consist of bulky heads of game are gifted with a special art of
eating, an exquisitely delicate art which saves a remnant of life in the
prey devoured, until it is all consumed. When the prey is a small one, this
precaution is superfluous. Consider, for instance, the Bembex-grubs in the
midst of their heap of Flies. The prey seized upon is broached on the back,
the belly, the head, the thorax, indifferently. The larva munches a given
spot, which it leaves to munch a second, passing to a third and a fourth,
at the bidding of its changing whims. It seems to taste and select, by
repeated trials, the mouthfuls most to its liking. Thus bitton at several
points, covered with wounds, the Fly is soon a shapeless mass which would
putrefy very quickly if the meagre dish were not devoured at a single meal.
Allow the Scolia-grub the same unlicensed gluttony: it would perish beside
its corpulent victim, which should have kept fresh for a fortnight, but