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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: seen the Hairy Ammophila munching the caterpillar's brain, the
Languedocian Sphex munching the brain of the Ephippigera, with the
object of inducing a passing torpor. But they simply squeeze the
brain and do even this with a wise discretion; they are careful not
to drive their sting into this fundamental centre of life; not one
of them ever thinks of doing so, for the result would be a corpse
which the larva would despise. The Spider, on the other hand,
inserts her double dirk there and there alone; any elsewhere it
would inflict a wound likely to increase resistance through
irritation. She wants a venison for consumption without delay and
brutally thrusts her fangs into the spot which the others so
The Life of the Spider |
