her hunting some thought of game which might be useful for the
larvae. Although not carried into effect, the intention excuses the
deed.

I therefore withdraw my epithets in order to admire the insect's
maternal logic and to hold it up to the admiration of others. The honey
would be pernicious to the health of the larvae. How does the mother
know that the syrup, a treat for her, is unwholesome for her young?
To this question our science offers no reply. The honey, I say, would
imperil the grubs' lives, The Bee must therefore first be made to
disgorge. The disgorging must be effected without lacerating the victim,
which the nurseling must receive in the fresh state; and the operation
is impracticable on a paralysed insect because of the resistance of
the stomach. The Bee must therefore be killed outright instead of being
paralysed, or the honey will not be voided. Instantaneous death can be
inflicted only by wounding the primordial centre of life. The sting must
therefore aim at the cervical ganglia, the seat of innervation on which
the rest of the organism depends. To reach them there is only one way,
through the little gap in the throat. It is here therefore that the
sting must be inserted; and it is here in fact that it is inserted, in
a spot hardly as large as the twenty-fifth of an inch square. Suppress
a single link of this compact chain, and the Bee-fed Philanthus becomes
impossible.

That honey is fatal to carnivorous larvae is a fact which teems with
consequences. Several Hunting Wasps feed their families upon Bees. These
include, to my knowledge, the Crowned Philanthus (P. coronatus, FAB.),
who lines her burrows with big Halicti; the Robber Philanthus (P.
raptor, LEP.), who chases all the smaller-sized Halicti, suited to her
own dimensions, indifferently; the Ornate Cerceris (C. ornata, FAB.),
another passionate lover of Halicti; and the Palarus (P. flavipes,
FAB.), who, with a curious eclecticism, stacks in her cells the greater
part of the Hymenopteron clan that does not exceed her powers. What do
these four huntresses and the others of similar habits do with their
victims whose crops are more or less swollen with honey? They must
follow the example of the Bee-eating Philanthus and make them disgorge,
lest their family perish of a honeyed diet; they must manipulate the
dead Bee, squeeze her and drain her dry. Everything goes to show it. I
leave it to the future to display these dazzling proofs of my doctrin