She does better than that. The victim’s head is still unscathed, the mandibles are at work: they might easily, as the insect is borne along, grip some bit of straw in the ground and successfully resist this forcible removal; the brain, the primary nervous centre, might provoke a stubborn contest, which would be very awkward with so heavy a burden. It is well that these hitches should be avoided. The caterpillar, therefore, must be reduced to a state of torpor which will deprive him of the least inclination for self-defence. The Ammophila succeeds in effecting this by munching his head. She takes good care not to use her needle: she is no clumsy bungler and knows quite well that to inflict a mortal wound on the cervical ganglia would mean killing the caterpillar then and there, the very thing to be avoided. She merely squeezes the brain between her mandibles, calculating every pinch; and, each time, she stops to ascertain the effect produced, for there is a nice point to be achieved, a certain degree of torpor that must not be exceeded, lest death should supervene. In this way the requisite lethargy is obtained, a somnolence in which all volition is lost. And now the caterpillar, incapable of resistance, incapable of wishing to resist, is seized by the nape of the neck and dragged to the nest. Comment would mar the eloquence of such facts as these. The Hairy Ammophila has twice allowed me to attend her surgical operations. I have described in an earlier chapter of this volume my first observation, which dates many years back. On that occasion I witnessed the performance quite unexpectedly; to-day, I have made all my preparations and have plenty of time at my disposal, so that I am able to make a much more thorough observation. In each case there was a multiplicity of needle-pricks, which were distributed methodically, from front to back, along the ventral surface. Is the number of stings indeed identical in both cases? This time, it is exactly nine. In the case of the victim which I saw paralysed on the Plateau des Angles, it seemed to me that the weapon inflicted more wounds, though I am not able to state the precise number. It is quite possible that this number varies slightly and that the last segments of the caterpillar, being much less important than the others, are attacked or left alone according to the size and strength of the quarry to be incapacitated. On the second occasion, moreover, I had my first view of the squeezing process to which the caterpillar’s brain is subjected, a process that produces the torpor which makes the transport and storage of the victim possible. So remarkable a fact would not have escaped me in the first instance; it did not, therefore, take place. It follows that this cerebral compression is a resource which the Wasp has at her disposal, for use when circumstances demand it, as for instance when the victim seems likely to offer resistance on the road.