THE INSECT WORLD 



The hunting behaviour of the solitary wasp, Philanthus, 

 described by Tinbergen, is a good example of a complex, 

 inherited pattern. A hunting female at first uses her eyes and 

 examines any object of the right size, hovering in the air 

 4-6 inches away. An attack is only made if the object has 



PM/ LAN THUS 



Fig. 4 

 Hunting behaviour of the solitary wasp, Philanthus. A hunting 

 female at first uses her eyes and turns towards and examines any 

 object of the right size, hovering in the air four to six inches away. 

 An attack is only made if the object has the smell of a honeybee 

 which is the normal prey (after Tinbergen). 



the smell of a honeybee, which is the usual prey. The attack 

 is usually made upwind, along the gradient of the smell. 



Besides following their instinctive behaviour patterns, all 

 insects are to some extent influenced by their past experience, 

 that is they have some power of learning. Learning is of 

 more than one kind and the simpler types are probably 

 possible for most species, though only a few examples have 

 been well investigated. One sort which may be universal 



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