To enlarge upon the proceeding would spoil the eloquence of this manœuvre. First, for the protection of the operator, a stab in the mouth, that fearsomely armed point, to be dreaded above all others; next, for the protection of the grub, a second stab in the nerve-centres of the thorax, to destroy all movement. I suspected indeed that the sacrificers of powerful Arachnids were endowed with special talents; but I was far from expecting their daring logic, which disarms before it paralyzes. This must also be the scheme followed by the Tarantula-huntress, who refused to disclose her secret under my bells. I know her method now, divulged as it is by a colleague. She turns the horrible Lycosa on her back, deadens her daggers by stinging her in the mouth and then, with a single prick of the needle, contrives the paralysis of the legs at her ease. I examine the Epeira immediately after the operation and the Tarantula when the Calicurgus drags her by one leg to her burrow, at the foot of a wall. For a little while longer, a minute at most, the Epeira convulsively moves her legs. As long as these dying quivers last, the Pompilus does not let go of her prey. She seems to be watching the progress of the paralysis. With the tip of her mandibles, she repeatedly explores the mouth of the Arachnid, as though to make sure that the poison-fangs are really harmless. Next, all becomes quiet; and the Calicurgus makes ready to drag her prey elsewhither. It is then that I take possession of it. What strikes me first of all is the absolute inertness of the fangs, which I tickle with a straw without succeeding in rousing them from their torpor. The feelers, on the contrary, the feelers, their immediate neighbours, move backwards and forwards the moment I touch them. I put the Epeira away safely in a flask and subject her to a fresh examination a week later. Irritability has returned in part. Under the stimulus of the straw, I see the limbs move a little, especially the lower joints, legs and tarsi. The feelers are even more irritable and mobile. These various movements, however, are devoid of vigour or coordination; and the Spider cannot use them to turn herself and still less to shift her position. As for the poison-fangs, I stimulate them in vain; I do not succeed in inducing them to open, or even to move. They are, therefore, profoundly paralyzed and in a special manner. I thought as much, at the beginning, from the peculiar persistency displayed by the dart in stinging the mouth. At the end of September, almost a month after the operation, the Epeira is in the same condition, neither dead nor alive: the feelers still quiver at the touch of the straw; and nothing else stirs. Finally, after six or seven weeks of lethargy, real death supervenes, together with its companion, corruption.