derive from
keeping its coils closed so long as danger remains. For that matter,
on the unyielding support of my table, they are not one and all so
cautious. The larger seem even to have forgotten what they knew so well
in their youth: the defensive art of coiling themselves up.

I continue my story with a fine-sized specimen, less likely to slip
under the Scolia's onslaught. When attacked, the larva does not curl up,
does not shrink into a ring as did the last, which was younger and only
half as large. It struggles awkwardly, lying on its side, half-open.
For all defence it twists about; it opens, closes and reopens the great
hooks of its mandibles. The Scolia grabs it at random, clasps it in
her shaggy legs and for nearly a quarter of an hour battles with the
luscious tit-bit. At last, after a not very tumultuous struggle, when
the favourable position is attained and the propitious moment has come,
the sting is implanted in the creature's thorax, in a central point,
below the throat, level with the fore-legs. The effect is instantaneous:
total inertia, except of the appendages of the head, the antennae and
mouth-parts. I achieved the same results, the same prick at a definite,
invariable point, with my several operators, renewed from time to time
by some lucky cast of the net.

Let us mention, in conclusion, that the attack of the Interrupted Scolia
is far less fierce than that of the Two-banded Scolia. The Wasp, a
rough sand-digger, has a clumsy gait; her movements are stiff and almost
automatic. She does not find it easy to repeat her dagger-thrust. Most
of the specimens with which I experimented refused a second victim on
the first two days after their exploits. As though somnolent, they did
not stir unless excited by my teasing them with a bit of straw. Although
more active and more ardent in the chase, the Two-banded Scolia likewise
does not draw her weapon every time that I invite her. For all these
huntresses there are moments of inaction which the presence of a fresh
prey is powerless to disturb.

The Scoliae have taught me nothing further, in the absence of subjects
belonging to other species. No matter: the results obtained represent no
small triumph for my ideas. Before seeing the Scoliae operate, I said,
guided solely by the anatomy of the victims, that the Cetonia-, Anoxia-
and Oryctes-larvae must be paralysed by a single thrust of the lancet;
I even named the point where the sting must strike, a centr