Note 6 — Chapter III · THE LANGUEDOCIAN SCORPION: THE POISON
Bernard Miall translation
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 Tachytes6 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?