xed 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 bite at the spot where it has just been born. The mother, with
her unfailing instinct, has already made the dangerous choice; she has
stuck her egg on the propitious spot and, by the very act of doing so,
marked out the course for the inexperienced grub to follow. The tact of
ripe age here guides the young larva's behavior at table.

The conditions are very different in the Anthrax' case. The egg is not
placed upon the victuals, it is not even laid in the mason bee's cell.
This is the natural consequence of the mother's feeble frame and of her
lack of any instrument, such as a probe or auger, capable of piercing
the mortar wall. It is for the newly hatched grub to make its own way
into the dwelling. It enters, finds itself in the presence of ample
provisions, the larva of the mason bee. Free of its actions, it is at
liberty to attack the prey where it chooses; or rather the attacking
point will be decided at haphazard by the first contact of the mouth
in quest of food. Grant this mouth a set of carving tools, jaws and
mandibles; in short, suppose the grub of the Fly to possess a manner of
eating similar to that of the other carnivorous larvae; and the nursling
is at once threatened with a speedy death. He will split open his
nurse's belly, he will dig without any rule to guide him, he will bite
at random, essentials as well as accessories; and, from one day to the
next, he will set up gangrene in the violated mass, ev