Now, to deprive the caterpillar of means of escape, and to render it motionless, will the Hymenopteron dart its sting into each of the eight rings provided with feet? Especially will it do so when the prey is small and weak? Certainly not: a single stab will suffice if given in a central spot, whence the torpor produced by the venomous droplet can spread gradually with as little delay as possible into the midst of those segments which bear feet. There can be no doubt which to choose for this single inoculation; it must be the fifth or sixth, which separate the two groups of locomotive rings. The point indicated by rational deduction is also the one adopted by instinct. Finally, let us add that the egg of the Ammophila is invariably laid on the paralysed ring. There, and there alone, can the young larva bite without inducing dangerous contorsions; where a needle prick has no effect, the bite of a grub will have none either, and the prey will remain immovable until the nursling has gained strength and can bite farther on without danger. With further researches doubts assailed me, not as to my deductions, but as to how widely I might extend them. That many feeble Loopers and other small caterpillars are disabled by a single stab, especially when struck at so favourable a point as the one just named, is very probable in itself, and, moreover, is shown both by direct observation and by experiments on their sensibility with the point of a needle. But Ammophila sabulosa and hirsuta catch huge prey, whose weight, as already said, is fifteen times that of the captor. Can such giant prey be treated like a poor Looper? Can a single stab subdue the monster and render it incapable of harm? If the fearsome gray worm strike the cell walls with its strong body, will it not endanger the egg or the little larva? One dares not imagine a tête-à-tête in the small cell at the bottom of the burrow between the frail, newly-hatched creature and this kind of dragon:—still able to coil and uncoil its lithe folds. My suspicions were heightened by examination as to the sensitiveness of the caterpillar. While the small game of Ammophila holosericea and hirsuta struggle violently if pricked elsewhere than in the part stabbed, the large caterpillars of A. sabulosa, and above all of A. hirsuta, remain motionless, no matter which segment be stimulated. They show no contortions or sudden twisting of the body, the steel point only producing as a sign faint shudderings of the skin. As the safety of a larva provided with such huge prey requires, motion and feeling are almost quite destroyed. Before introducing it into the burrow, the Hymenopteron turns it into a mass—inert indeed, yet not dead.