I place under the bell-glass a Philanthus and two or three Hive-bees. The prisoners climb the glass wall, towards the light; they go up, come down again and try to get out; the vertical polished surface is to them a practicable floor. They soon quiet down; and the spoiler begins to notice her surroundings. The antennae are pointed forwards, enquiringly; the hind-legs are drawn up with a little quiver of greed in the tarsi; the head turns to right and left and follows the evolutions of the Bees against the glass. The miscreant's posture now becomes a striking piece of acting: you can read in it the fierce longings of the creature lying in ambush, the crafty waiting for the moment to commit the crime. The choice is made: the Philanthus pounces on her prey. Turn by turn tumbling over and tumbled, the two insects roll upon the ground. The tumult soon abates; and the murderess prepares to strangle her capture. I see her adopt two methods. In the first, which is more usual than the other, the Bee is lying on her back; and the Philanthus, belly to belly with her, grips her with her six legs while snapping at her neck with her mandibles. The abdomen is now curved forward from behind, along the prostrate victim, feels with its tip, gropes about a little and ends by reaching the under part of the neck. The sting enters, lingers for a moment in the wound; and all is over. Without releasing her prey, which is still tightly clasped, the murderess restores her abdomen to its normal position and keeps it pressed against the Bee's. In the second method, the Philanthus operates standing. Resting on her hind-legs and on the tips of her unfurled wings, she proudly occupies an erect attitude, with the Bee held facing her between her four front legs. To give the poor thing a position suited to receive the dagger-stroke, she turns her round and back again with the rough clumsiness of a child handling its doll. Her pose is magnificent to look at. Solidly planted on her sustaining tripod, the two hinder tarsi and the tips of the wings, she at last crooks her abdomen upwards and again stings the Bee under the chin. The originality of the Philanthus' posture at the moment of the murder surpasses the anything that I have hitherto seen.