onia in the
nerve-centres. I make a fine incision in its belly and I place the
Scolia on the opening. The dish pleases my charge; and it would
be strange indeed if this were not so, considering that another
Scolia-grub, the larva of the Garden Scolia, feeds on the Oryctes.
The dish suits it, for before long it has burrowed half-way into
the succulent paunch. This time all goes well. Will the rearing be
successful? Not a bit of it! On the third day, the Oryctes decomposes
and the Scolia dies. Which shall we hold responsible for the failure,
myself or the grub? Myself who, perhaps too unskilfully, administered
the injection of ammonia, or the grub which, a novice at dissecting a
prey differing from its own, did not know how to practise its craft upon
a changed victim and began to bite before the proper time?

In my uncertainty, I try again. This time I shall not interfere, so that
my clumsiness cannot be to blame. As I described when speaking of the
Cetonia-larva, the Oryctes-larva now lies bound, quite alive, on a strip
of cork. As usual, I make a small opening in the belly, to entice the
grub by means of a bleeding wound and facilitate its access. I obtain
the same negative result. In a little while, the Oryctes is a noisome
mass on which the nurseling lies poisoned. The failure was foreseen: to
the difficulties presented by a prey unknown to my charge was added the
commotion caused by the wriggling of an unparalysed animal.

We will try once more, this time with a victim paralysed not by me, an
unskilled operator, but by an adept whose ability ranks so high that it
is beyond discussion. Chance favours me to perfection: yesterday, in a
warm sheltered corner, at the foot of a sandy bank, I discovered three
cells of the Languedocian Sphex, each with its Ephippiger and the
recently laid egg. This is the game I want, a corpulent prey, of a
size suited to the Scolia and, what is more, in splendid condition,
artistically paralysed according to rule by a master among masters.

As usual, I install my three Ephippigers in a glass jar, on a bed of
mould; I remove the egg of the Sphex and on each victim, after slightly
incising the skin of the belly, I place a young Scolia-grub. For three
or four days my charges feed upon this game, so novel to them, without
any sign of repugnance or hesitation. By the fluctuations of the
digestive canal I perceive that the work of nutrition is proceeding
as it should; things are happening just