iscover the slightest wound.

These various manipulations, especially the squeezing of the neck, at
once bring about the desired results: the honey in the crop mounts
to the Bee's throat. I see the tiny drops spurt out, lapped up by the
glutton as soon as they appear. The bandit greedily, over and over
again, takes the dead insect's lolling, sugared tongue into her mouth;
then she once more digs into the neck and thorax, subjecting the
honey-bag to the renewed pressure of her abdomen. The syrup comes and is
instantly lapped up and lapped up again. In this way the contents of
the crop are exhausted in small mouthfuls, yielded one at a time. This
odious meal at the expense of a corpse's stomach is taken in a sybaritic
attitude; the Philanthus lies on her side with the Bee between her legs.
The atrocious banquet sometimes lasts for half an hour or longer. At
last the drained Bee is discarded, not without regret, it seems, for
from time to time I see the manipulation renewed. After taking a turn
round the top of the bell-jar, the robber of the dead returns to her
prey and squeezes it, licking its mouth until the last trace of honey
has disappeared.

This frenzied passion of the Philanthus for the Bee's syrup is declared
in yet another fashion. When the first victim has been sucked dry, I
slip under the glass a second victim, which is promptly stabbed under
the chin and then subjected to pressure to extract the honey. A third
follows and undergoes the same fate without satisfying the bandit. I
offer a fourth and a fifth. They are all accepted. My notes mention one
Philanthus who in front of my eyes sacrificed six Bees in succession and
squeezed out their crops in the regulation manner. The slaughter came to
an end not because the glutton was sated but because my functions as a
purveyor were becoming rather difficult: the dry month of August causes
the insects to avoid my harmas, which at this season is denuded of
flowers. Six crops emptied of their honey: what an orgy! And even then
the ravenous creature would very likely not have scorned a copious
additional course, had I possessed the means of supplying it!

There is no reason to regret this break in the service; the little that
I have said is more than enough to prove the singular characteristics of
the Bee-slayer. I am far from denying that the Philanthus has an honest
means of earning her livelihood; I find her working on the flowers as
assiduously as the other Wasps,