All that I can see by way of a glimpse--and even then I put forward my
suspicions with extreme reserve--all that I am permitted to surmise is
reduced to this: the substance of the sleeping larva as yet has no very
definite static existence; it is like the raw materials collected for a
building; it is waiting for the elaboration that is to make a bee of it.
To mould those shapeless lumps of the future insect, the air, that prime
adjuster of living things, circulates among them, passing through a
network of ducts. To organize them, to direct the placing of them, the
nervous system, the embryo of the animal, distributes its ramifications
over them. Nerve and air duct, therefore, are the essentials; the rest
is so much material in reserve for the process of the metamorphosis. As
long as that material is not employed, as long as it has not acquired
its final equilibrium, it can grow less and less; and life, though
languishing, will continue all the same on the express condition that
the respiratory organs and the nervous filaments be respected. It is as
it were the flame of the lamp, which, whether full or empty, continues
to give light so long as the wick is soaked in oil. Nothing but fluids,
the plastic materials held in reserve, can be distilled by the
Anthrax' sucker through the unpierced skin of the grub; no part of the
respiratory and nervous systems passes. As the two essential functions
remain unscathed, life goes on until exhaustion is completed. On the
other hand, if I myself injure the larva, I disturb the nervous or air
conducting filaments; and the bruised part spreads a taint, followed by
putrefaction, all over the body.

I have elsewhere, speaking of the Scolia [a digger wasp] devouring the
Cetonia grub, enlarged upon this refined art of eating which consists
in consuming the prey while killing it only at the last mouthfuls. The
Anthrax has the same requirements as his competitors who dine off fresh
viands. He needs meat of that day, taken from a single joint that has to
last a fortnight without going bad. His method of consuming reaches the
highest level of art: he does not cut into his prey, he sips it little
by little through his sucker. In this way, any dangerous risk is
averted. Whether he imbibe at this spot or at that, even if he abandon
the sucking process and resume it later, by no accident can he ever
attack that which it is incumbent upon him to respect lest corruption
supervene. The others have a fi