Destruction Crumb by Crumb

Pain is a patent of nobility; it is more pronounced in proportion as the sufferer belongs to a higher order. In the lower ranks of animal life, it must be greatly reduced, perhaps even nil, especially when life, in the throes of evolution, has not yet acquired a stable equilibrium. The white of an egg is living matter, but endures the prick of a needle without a quiver. Would it not be the same with the chrysalis of the great peacock, dissected cell by cell by hundreds of infinitesimal anatomists? Would it not be the same with the pupa of the flesh fly? These are organisms put back into the crucible, reverting to the egg state for a second birth. There is reason to believe, therefore, that their destruction crumb by crumb is merciful.

Watching tiny wasps eat a fly pupa from inside, Fabre tries to talk himself into believing it does not hurt.

Source: J.-Henri Fabre, The Life of the Fly, trans. A. Teixeira de Mattos (Dodd, Mead, 1913), ch. XVI "A Parasite of the Maggot." Text: Project Gutenberg. Public domain in the US. Pairs with: Swords: Three or Nine of Swords A note from 2026: Whether insects feel pain is still debated, and the evidence for pain-like states in insects keeps growing. Pupal tissue does partly break down during metamorphosis, but it does not "revert to the egg state."

Public domain in the United States.