And now let us repay ourselves for our trouble by witnessing the drama under glass. Heavy and clumsy in her ways, the Scolia moves slowly round the arena. At the sight of the game, her attention wakes up. The fight is heralded by the same preparations as those displayed by the Two-banded Scolia: the Hymenopteron polishes her wings and taps the table with the tips of her antennæ. And now, up, lads, and at ’em! The attack begins. Unfit to move over a flat surface, because of its short, weak legs; lacking, moreover, the Cetonia’s eccentric means of locomotion on its back, the big-bellied worm does not dream of running away: it rolls itself up. The Scolia, with her powerful nippers, grabs its skin, now at once place, now at another. Buckled into an arch whose two ends almost meet, she strives to thrust the tip of her belly into the narrow opening of the volute formed by the grub. The fight is conducted quite calmly, without hard blows and with varying fortunes. It represents the obstinate attempt of a live split ring trying to slip one of its ends into another live split ring, which displays an equal obstinacy in remaining closed. The Scolia holds the game in subjection with her legs and mandibles; she makes her attempt first on one side and then on the other, without succeeding in unrolling the torus, which becomes the more contracted the more it feels itself in danger. The actual circumstances make the operation difficult: the prey slips and rolls over the table, when the insect goes for it too briskly; points of support are wanting and the sting cannot reach the desired spot; for over an hour, one vain attempt follows upon the other, divided by spells of rest, during which the two adversaries look like two narrow rings wound one inside the other. What ought the sturdy Cetonia grub to do in order to defy the Two-banded Scolia, who is nothing like so strong as her victim? Imitate the Anoxia, of course, and remain rolled up like a hedgehog until the enemy retreats. It tries to flee, unrolls itself and thus causes its own undoing. The other does not budge from its defensive posture and resists successfully. Is this due to acquired prudence? No, but to the impossibility of acting otherwise on the polished surface of a table. Heavy, obese, weak-legged, bent into a hook after the manner of the common white maggot, the Anoxia grub is unable to shift its position on a smooth surface; it flounders painfully, lying on its side. What it wants is the shifting soil wherein, using its mandibles as a spade, it digs and buries itself.