220 THE SOLITARY WASPS. 



CHAPTEK XVn. 



THE STINGING HABIT IN WASPS. 



Among writers on psychology and biology there are few sub- 

 jects that have given rise to more speculation than the origin 

 and purpose of the stinging habits of hymenoptera. Each 

 school of philosophy claims the solitary wasp as evidence of it& 

 favorite opinions. That admirable observer, Eabre, remarks 

 that Darwin dreaded much the problem of instinct and that had 

 he known the results of his — Fabre's — latest observations on the 

 stinging habits of solitary wasps his anxiety would have resulted 

 in a frank avowal of impotence to make instinct enter the mould 

 of his formula; while we, on the other hand, find among these 

 very habits good examples of the workings of natural selection. 



"Writers on this subject have uniformily acsumed — upon 

 what evidence we have thus far been unable to discover — that 

 the wasp, instinctively or intelligently, uses its sting for the 

 single purpose of paralyzing without killing its prey, that it 

 may thus provide its offspring with a fresh supply of food. To 

 show to what extremes this idea has been carried let us quote a 

 remarkable passage from Eimer. He says: "When the nest is 

 ready, the wasp brings into it larvae of beetles and other insects, 

 which she has paralyzed by stinging them in the gangHa which 

 govern muscular action. This is one of the most marvellous in- 

 stincts that exist; since the wasp operates on various larvas with 

 nerv^ous systems of various forms, she must effect the paralysis 

 in various ways, and even apart from this, she makes a physio- 

 logical experiment which is far in advance of the knowledge of 

 man. The wasp thus carries one motionless but living larva 

 after another into her tube until it is full, and she rolls up the 



