t where the murder was committed, in order to go in search
of another victim.

This is how the deed must be done: the results prove it emphatically.
But then the Cetonia-grub must possess a very exceptional structure in
its nervous organization. The larva's violent contraction leaves but a
single point of attack open to the sting, the under part of the neck,
which is doubtless uncovered when the victim tries to defend itself
with its mandibles; and yet a stab in this one point produces the most
thorough paralysis that I have ever seen. It is the general rule that
larvae possess a centre of innervation for each segment. This is so
in particular with the Grey Worm, the sacrificial victim of the Hairy
Ammophila. The Wasp is acquainted with this anatomical secret: she stabs
the caterpillar again and again, from end to end, segment by segment,
ganglion by ganglion. With such an organization the Cetonia-grub,
unconquerably coiled upon itself would defy the paralyser's surgical
skill.

If the first ganglion were wounded, the others would remain uninjured;
and the powerful body, actuated by these last, would lose none of its
powers of contraction. Woe then to the egg, to the young grub held fast
in its embrace! And how insurmountable would be the difficulties if the
Scolia, working in the profound darkness amid the crumbling soil and
confronted by a terrible pair of mandibles, had to stab each segment
in turn with her sting, with the certainty of method displayed by the
Ammophila! The delicate operation is possible in the open air, where
nothing stands in the way, in broad daylight, where the sight guides the
scalpel, and with a patient which can always be released if it becomes
dangerous. But in the dark, underground, amidst the ruins of a ceiling
which crumbles in consequence of the conflict and at close quarters with
an opponent greatly her superior in strength, how is the Scolia to guide
her sting with the accuracy that is essential if the stabs are to be
repeated?

So profound a paralysis; the difficulty of vivisection underground;
the desperate coiling of the victim: all these things tell me that the
Cetonia-grub, as regards its nervous system, must possess a structure
peculiar to itself. The whole of the ganglia must be concentrated in a
limited area in the first segments, almost under the neck. I see this
as clearly as though it had been revealed to me by a post-mortem
dissection.

Never was anatomical forecast mor