Now, in order to deprive the caterpillar of its means of escape, to render it motionless, will the Wasp drive her sting into each of the eight rings provided with locomotory organs? Above all, will she take this superfluity of precaution when the prey is quite weak and small? Certainly not: a single stab will be enough; but it will be given at a central point, whence the torpor produced by the tiny drop of poison can spread gradually, with the least possible delay, to the segments furnished with legs. There is no doubt about the segment to be picked out for this single inoculation: it must be the fifth or the sixth, which separate the two groups of locomotory rings. The point indicated by rational inferences is therefore also the point adopted by instinct. Lastly, let us add that the Ammophila’s egg is invariably laid on the ring that has been rendered insensible. Here and here alone the young larva can bite without provoking dangerous contortions; where a needle-prick has no effect, the grub’s bite will have no effect either. The grub will thus remain motionless until the nurseling has gained strength and can forge ahead without running a risk. In my later researches, as the number of my observations increased, I began to entertain doubts, not as to the conclusions which I had formed, but as to their general application. That feeble Loopers and other small caterpillars are rendered harmless by a single thrust, especially when the sting strikes the favourable spot described, is a thing quite probable in itself and one which can also be proved either by direct observation or by testing the insect’s sensibility with a needle. But the Sandy Ammophila and especially the Hairy Ammophila capture enormous victims, whose weight, as I have said, is fifteen times that of the kidnapper. Will this giant prey be treated in the same manner as the frail Measuring-worm? Will one dagger-thrust be sufficient to subdue the monster and render it incapable of doing harm? Will the horrid Grey Worm, lashing the walls of the cell with its powerful tail, not endanger either the egg or the little grub? We dare not picture the encounter, in the narrow cell of the burrow, between those two—the feeble, new-hatched creature and that dragony thing still possessing freedom in its movements to twist and untwist its tortuous coils.