a few minutes later.
These wonderful anatomists know absolutely nothing about anything, they
do not even know what their victims are good for. Admirable artists
in killing and paralysis, they kill or paralyse at every favourable
opportunity, no matter what the final result as regards the egg.
Their talent, which leaves our science speechless, has not a shadow of
consciousness of the task accomplished.

A second detail strikes me: the desperate persistence of the Scolia. I
have seen the struggle continue for more than a quarter of an hour, with
frequent alternations of good luck and bad, before the Wasp achieved the
required position and reached with the end of her abdomen the spot where
the sting should penetrate. During these assaults, which were resumed as
soon as they were repulsed, the aggressor repeatedly applied the tip of
her belly to the larva, but without unsheathing, as I could see by the
absence of the start which the larva gives when it feels the pain of the
sting. The Scolia therefore does not prick the Cetonia anywhere until
the weapon covers the requisite spot. If no wounds are inflicted
elsewhere, this is not in any way due to the structure of the larva,
which is soft and vulnerable all over, except in the head. The point
sought by the sting is no more unprotected than any other part of the
skin.

In the scuffle, the Scolia, curved into a bow, is sometimes seized by
the vice-like grip of the Cetonia-grub, which is violently coiling and
uncoiling. Heedless of the powerful grip, the Wasp does not let go for
a moment, either with her mandibles or with the tip of her abdomen. At
such times the two creatures, locked in a mutual embrace, turn over and
over in a mad whirl, each of them now on top, now underneath. When it
contrives to rid itself of its enemy, the larva uncoils again, stretches
itself out and proceeds to make off upon its back with all possible
speed. Its defensive ruses are exhausted. Formerly, before I had seen
things for myself, taking probability as my guide I willingly granted to
the larva the trick of the Hedgehog, who rolls himself into a ball and
sets the Dog at defiance. Coiled upon itself, with an energy which my
fingers have some difficulty in overcoming, the larva, I thought, would
defy the Scolia, powerless to unroll it and disdaining any point but
the one selected. I hoped and believed that it possessed this means of
defence, a means both efficacious and extremely simple. I had pr