tunately, such windfalls do not often find their
way into my sweeping-net. Abstinence becomes obligatory until the
arrival of the first Butterflies. Henceforth, Pieris brassicae, the
White Cabbage Butterfly, will contribute the greater portion of the
victuals.

Let loose in the wire cage, the Pieris is regarded as excellent game.
The Empusa lies in wait for her, seizes her, but releases her at once,
lacking the strength to overpower her. The Butterfly's great wings,
beating the air, give her shock after shock and compel her to let go. I
come to the weakling's assistance and cut the wings of her prey with my
scissors. The maimed ones, still full of life, clamber up the
trellis-work and are forthwith grabbed by the Empusae, who, in no way
frightened by their protests, crunch them up. The dish is to their
taste and, moreover, plentiful, so much so that there are always some
despised remnants.

The head only and the upper portion of the breast are devoured: the
rest--the plump abdomen, the best part of the thorax, the legs and
lastly, of course, the wing-stumps--is flung aside untouched. Does this
mean that the tenderest and most succulent morsels are chosen? No, for
the belly is certainly more juicy; and the Empusa refuses it, though
she eats up her House-fly to the last particle. It is a strategy of
war. I am again in the presence of a neck-specialist as expert as the
Mantis herself in the art of swiftly slaying a victim that struggles
and, in struggling, spoils the meal.

Once warned, I soon perceive that the game, be it Fly, Locust,
Grasshopper, or Butterfly, is always struck in the neck, from behind.
The first bite is aimed at the point containing the cervical ganglia
and produces sudden death or immobility. Complete inertia will leave
the consumer in peace, the essential condition of every satisfactory
repast.

The Devilkin, therefore, frail though she be, possesses the secret of
immediately destroying the resistance of her prey. She bites at the
back of the neck first, in order to give the finishing stroke. She goes
on nibbling around the original attacking-point. In this way the
Butterfly's head and the upper part of the breast are disposed of. But,
by that time, the huntress is surfeited: she wants so little! The rest
lies on the ground, disdained, not for lack of flavour, but because
there is too much of it. A Cabbage Butterfly far exceeds the capacity
of the Empusa's stomach. The Ants will benefit by what is