wounded victim, for most of them are without a sting; a live
victim, but steeped in the torpor of the coming transformations and thus
delivered without defence to the grub that is to devour it.

With them, as with the Scoliae, meals are made on the spot on game
legitimately acquired by indefatigable battues or by patient stalking
in which all the rules have been observed; only, the animal hunted is
defenceless and does not need to be laid low with a dagger-thrust. To
seek and find for one's larder a torpid prey incapable of resistance is,
if you like, less meritorious than heroically to stab the strong-jawed
Rose-chafer or Rhinoceros-beetle; but since when has the title of
sportsman been denied to him who blows out the brains of a harmless
Rabbit, instead of waiting without flinching for the furious charge
of the Wild Boar and driving his hunting-knife into him behind his
shoulder? Besides, if the actual assault is without danger, the
approach is attended with a difficulty that increases the merit of these
second-rate poachers. The coveted game is invisible. It is confined in
the stronghold of a cell and moreover protected by the surrounding wall
of a cocoon. Of what prowess must not the mother be capable to determine
the exact spot at which it lies and to lay her egg on its side or at
least close by? For these reasons, I boldly number the Chrysis, the
Mutilla and their rivals among the hunters and reserve the ignoble
title of parasites for the Tachina, the Melecta, the Crocisa, the
Meloe-beetle, in short, for all those who feed on the provisions of
others.

All things considered, is ignoble the right epithet to apply to
parasitism? No doubt, in the human race, the idler who feeds at other
people's tables is contemptible at all points; but must the animal bear
the burden of the indignation inspired by our own vices? Our parasites,
our scurvy parasites, live at their neighbour's expense: the animal
never; and this changes the whole aspect of the question. I know of
no instance, not one, excepting man, of parasites who consume the
provisions hoarded by a worker of the same species. There may be, here
and there, a few cases of larceny, of casual pillage among hoarders
belonging to the same trade: that I am quite ready to admit, but it does
not affect things. What would be really serious and what I formally
deny is that, in the same zoological species, there should be some who
possessed the attribute of living at the expen