same exaggeration of the belly; the same hook-like curve; the same
incapacity for standing on its legs. And as much may be said of the larva
of Scarabaeus pentodon, a fellow-boarder of the Oryctes and the Cetonia.


CHAPTER 5. THE PROBLEM OF THE SCOLIAE.

Now that all the facts have been set forth, it is time to collate them. We
already know that the Beetle-hunters, the Cerceres (Cf. "The Hunting
Wasps": chapters 1 to 3.--Translator's Note.), prey exclusively on the
Weevils and the Buprestes, that is, on the families whose nervous system
presents a degree of concentration which may be compared with that of the
Scolia's victims. Those predatory insects, working in the open air, are
exempt from the difficulties which their emulators, working underground,
have to overcome. Their movements are free and are directed by the sense of
sight; but their surgery is confronted in another respect with a most
arduous problem.

The victim, a Beetle, is covered at all points with a suit of armour which
the sting is unable to penetrate. The joints alone will allow the poisoned
lancet to pass. Those of the legs do not in any way comply with the
conditions imposed: the result of stinging them would be merely a partial
disorder which far from subduing the insect, would render it more dangerous
by irritating it yet further. A sting in the joint of the neck is not
admissible: it would injure the cervical ganglia and lead to death,
followed by putrefaction. There remains only the joint between the corselet
and the abdomen.

The sting, in entering here, has to abolish all movement with a single
stab, for any movement would imperil the rearing of the larva. The success