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I, who have no fortune, nor as is your lot upon my name, neither the rime and hoar of silver, new renown, nor golden rust of brown antiquity, the dust of ages in heroic deeds, lying on your escutcheon, dyeing it as the dust that dapples the bright insect's wings; shall I, I say, come and lie like to a bar sinister across it? for what else should I be considered by your indignant friends, except, indeed, a shadow on your brightness, a shame across your honour?" and she hung her head in despairing sadness, whilst Montigny thus replied: "Oh, shame on me, to hear you so self-slandered!

The bandit greedily, over and over again, takes the dead insect's lolling, sugared tongue into her mouth; then she once more digs into the neck and thorax, subjecting the honey-bag to the renewed pressure of her abdomen. The syrup comes and is instantly lapped up and lapped up again. In this way the contents of the crop are exhausted in small mouthfuls, yielded one at a time.

At that hour of night Nature was dead; shadows hung the whitewashed walls with crape; a chill fell upon his shoulders like a salutary penance-shirt. He could now wholly surrender himself to the supremest love, without fear of any flickering ray of light, any caressing breeze or scent, any buzzing of an insect's wing disturbing him amidst the delight of loving.

As the tunnel was deepened a new method of excavation was employed. It has now reached a depth of an inch, only the extremity of the insect's body appearing, and the two hindermost legs clinging to surrounding earth for purchase. The deep digging is now accompanied by a continual buzzing noise, resembling that produced by a bluebottle fly held captive between one's fingers.

When we consider the insect's delicate organ, so admirably fitted for the purpose to which it is applied, it becomes difficult to believe that it could have been so perfected except in a condition of things utterly unlike the present.

The caterpillar is then seized by its hinder extremity; and the Ammophila, progressing towards the head, stings in reverse order, passing from the succeeding to the preceding segment, including the thorax already stabbed. This reversal of the usual tactics I am inclined to attribute to negligence on the insect's part.

I will not, however, pursue the subject, neither will I offer to explain the method used for counting the beats of an insect's wing. That would carry us farther than would be desirable. To return to our little animal. I leave you to imagine the enormous amount of strength required for such precipitate motion.

This time I shall attack the problem from the other end, that is, I shall first allow human knowledge to have its say and shall then interrogate the insect's knowledge.

"All right, if that's the way you feel about it," said Jim. He raised the bar and brought it down with crushing force on one of the insect's lower arms. The arm fell as though paralyzed and a blue light played across the beetle's eyes. Jim extended the sketch again and raised the bar threateningly. The beetle moved over to the control board, Jim following closely, and set the ship in motion.

The female of the white-faced Decticus will eagerly devour the body of her dead mate, as will the Green Grasshopper. To a certain extent this custom is excused by the nature of the insect's diet; the Decticus and the Grasshopper are essentially carnivorous. Encountering a dead body of their own species, a female will devour it, even if it be the body of her latest mate.