ttempts. The details would form tedious
reading and be of very little advantage, as in this sort of study it
is impossible to marshal one's facts with any regularity. I will,
therefore, sum them up in a few examples.

A colossal member of the Grasshopper tribe, the most powerful in my
district, Decticus verrucivorus (This Decticus has received its specific
name of verrucivorus, or Wart-eating, because it is employed by
the peasants in Sweden and elsewhere to bite off the warts on their
fingers.--Translator's Note.), is pricked at the base of the neck, on
the line of the fore-legs, at the median point. The prick goes straight
down. The spot is the same as that pierced by the sting of the slayer
of Crickets and Ephippigers. (A species of Green Grasshopper. The Sphex
paralyses Crickets and Grasshoppers to provide food for her grubs. Cf.
"Insect Life": chapters 6 to 12.--Translator's Note.) The giantess, as
soon as stung, kicks furiously, flounders about, falls on her side and
is unable to get up again. The fore-legs are paralysed; the others are
capable of moving. Lying sideways, if not interfered with, the insect in
a few moments gives no signs of life beyond a fluttering of the antennae
and palpi, a pulsation of the abdomen and a convulsive uplifting of the
ovipositor; but, if irritated with a slight touch, it stirs its four
hind-legs, especially the third pair, those with the big thighs, which
kick vigorously. Next day, the condition is much the same, with an
aggravation of the paralysis, which has now attacked the middle-legs.
On the day after that, the legs do not move, but the antennae, the palpi
and the ovipositor continue to flutter actively. This is the condition
of the Ephippiger stabbed three times in the thorax by the Languedocian
Sphex. One point alone is missing, a most important point: the long
persistence of a remnant of life. In fact, on the fourth day, the
Decticus is dead; her dark colour tells me so.

There are two conclusions to be drawn from this experiment and it is
well to emphasise them. First, the Bee's poison is so active that a
single dagger-thrust aimed at a nervous centre kills in four days one
of the largest of the Orthoptera (An order of insects including the
Grasshoppers, Locusts, Cockroaches, Mantes and Earwigs, in addition
to the Stick- and Leaf-insects, Termites, Dragon-flies, May-flies,
Book-lice and others.--Translator's Note.), though an insect of powerful
constitution. Secondly, the