A PRACTICE AMONG WASPS. 343 



Who of us shall say, darkling as we are., that because the 

 lamp of instinct is,, for all their common wants and purposes, 

 the guiding light of insects, that they are not permitted to 

 possess in reserve, and to employ in special exigencies, some 

 assisting tapers kindled at that more exalted luminary, Reason ? 

 That thus it is, the observations of those who know most of 

 their economy go far to prove ; so far, that if we deny to them 

 a certain measure of rational judgment, we must do the same 

 to every visible denizen of earth which wears not the human 

 form. Some insect actions, it is true, which would seem on 

 consideration referable solely to instinct, so very much resem- 

 ble such as are prompted among ourselves, by reason acting 

 on experience, that were not, with the insect agent, that expe- 

 rience known to be wanting, we should conclude that from 

 reason they must emanate. 



Of this description is a practice common amongst some of 

 the solitary wasps, which are accustomed to provision their 

 tunnelled nests with a supply of living caterpillars as food for 

 their young. If these caterpillars were stung to death before 

 deposit, they would soon be in no state of proper preservation 

 for their destined consumers, and if consigned unhurt to 

 the sepulchral larder, they would disturb the quiet, perhaps 

 destroy the existence, of its infant inmates. To meet these 

 contingencies, what does the maternal purveyor but inflict on 

 her soft-bodied victims not a mortal, but a disabling wound, 

 which keeps them in their coil, each waiting passively its turn 

 to be despatched. 



