Insect is in the habit of depositing its prey on the ground, then of turning round, entering the burrow backwards, seizing as it does so the cricket by the antennae, and so dragging it into the cell, itself going {109}backwards. The habit of depositing its prey on the ground enabled Fabre to observe the process of stinging; this he did by himself capturing a cricket, and when the wasp had momentarily quitted its prey, substituting the sound cricket for the paralysed one. The _Sphex_, on finding this new and lively victim, proceeds at once to sting it, and pounces on the cricket, which, after a brief struggle, is overcome by the wasp; this holds it supine, and then administers three stings, one in the neck, one in the joint between the pro- and meso-thorax, and a third at the base of the abdomen, these three spots corresponding with the situation of the three chief nervous centres governing the movements of the body. The cricket is thus completely paralysed, without, however, being killed. Fabre proved that an Insect so treated would survive for several weeks, though deprived of all power of movement. Three or four crickets are placed by the wasp in each cell, 100 individuals or upwards being thus destroyed by a single wasp. Although the sting has such an immediate and powerful effect on the cricket, it occasions but a slight and evanescent pain to a human being; the sting is not barbed, as it is in many bees and true wasps, and appears to be rarely used by the Insect for any other purpose than that of paralysing its victims. The egg is laid by the _Sphex_ on the ventral surface of the victim between the second and third pairs of legs. In three or four days the young larva makes its appearance in the form of a feeble little worm, as transparent as crystal; this larva does not change its place, but there, where it was hatched, pierces the skin of the cricket with its tiny head, and thus begins the process of feeding; it does not leave the spot where it first commenced to feed, but gradually enters by the orifice it has made, into the interior of the cricket. This is completely emptied in the course of six or seven days, nothing but its integument remaining; the wasp-larva has by this time attained a length of about 12 millimetres, and makes its exit through the orifice it entered by, changing its skin as it does so. Another cricket is then attacked and rapidly consumed, the whole stock being devoured in ten or twelve days from the commencement of the feeding operations; the consumption of the later-eaten crickets is not performed in so delicate a manner as is the eating of the first victim. When full-grown, the process of forming a cocoon commences: this is a very elaborate operation, for the encasement consists of three layers, in {110}addition to the rough silk that serves as a sort of scaffolding on the exterior: the internal coat is polished and is of a dark colour, owing to its being coloured with a matter from the