The Scorpion does not think out his blows; he strikes at random any point within reach. This time he has stabbed a part which is eminently vulnerable, because of the proximity of the principal nerve-centres; he has stung the Mantis in the breast, between the lethal legs, precisely where the Mantis-killing Tachytes [21] wounds her victim with the object of paralysing it. The act is fortuitous and not intentional: the lout is not an expert anatomist like the Wasp. As luck would have it, death was instantaneous. What would happen if the sting were delivered in another, less dangerous part of the body? I change the operator, to make sure that the poison-phial is charged. I shall take the same precaution in the various subsequent encounters: each fresh victim will have a fresh executioner, whose full powers have been restored by a long rest. The Mantis, another powerful matron, stands half-erect, turns her head [22] and looks at him warily over her shoulder. She assumes her spectral attitude, with puffing sounds produced by rubbing the wings together. Her boldness at first succeeds: she manages to seize her adversary’s tail with her toothed fore-arms. As long as she holds tight, the Scorpion is disarmed and unable to hurt her. But fatigue supervenes, enhanced by terror. The Mantis had seized the tail brandished in front of her as she might have harpooned any other part of the body, without doubting the efficiency of her manœuvre. The poor simpleton opens her trap. She is lost. The Scorpion stings her in the abdomen, not far from the third pair of legs. Complete collapse ensues, like that of a piece of clockwork whose mainspring is broken. It is not in my power to obtain stings at this or that point as I choose: the irascible Scorpion does not lend himself to the liberty of attempting to guide his weapon. I make the most of the various instances that occur in the hazards of the contest. Some of them are worth recording, because of the great distance from the centres of innervation. This time the Mantis is stung on one of the lethal limbs, in the fine-skinned joint of the arm and fore-arm. This results in immediate inertia of the limb affected and soon after of the second. The other legs curl up: there are pulsations of the abdomen; and absolute immobility quickly follows. Death is almost instantaneous. Another is stung in the joint between the shank and the thigh of one of the middle legs. Suddenly the four hind-legs fold back; the wings which the insect had not outspread at the moment of the attack, are unfurled convulsively, as in the spectral attitude, and remain outspread even after death. The murderous legs flounder about in disorder: they clutch, they open, they close again; the antennæ move, the palpi tremble, the abdomen throbs, the caudal appendages wave to and fro. Another fifteen minutes of this tumultuous death-struggle: and all is still; the Mantis is no more.