Note 4 — Chapter iii · A SCIENTIFIC SLAUGHTERER

I find the necessary information in M. Émile Blanchard’s fine work on the nervous system of the Coleoptera.4 I see there that this centralization of the nervous system is the prerogative, in the first place, of the Scarabæidæ, or Chafers; but most of these are too large: the Cerceris could perhaps neither attack them nor carry them away; besides, many of them live in the midst of ordure where the Wasp, herself so cleanly, would refuse to go in search of them. Motor centres very close together are found also in the Histers, who live on carrion and dung, in an atmosphere of loathsome smells, and who must therefore be eliminated; in the Scolyti, who are too small; and lastly in the Buprestes and the Weevils.