BEHAVIOUR 103 



wasp, after digging her nest, returned to the bean-plant in 

 search of the paralysed prey, saw the uninjured substitute, 

 but would not touch it. After several fruitless searches, 

 the wasp went away, caught and stung another spider, 

 placed it in the usual position on the bean-plant, and then 

 dug another nest, although the first made one was ready 

 and empty. The break made in the insect's usual routine 

 by the observer's act, resulted in the whole process being 

 started again from the beginning. Apparently the wasp 

 recognised that the spider she found had not been stung, 

 but she did not attempt to deal with a normal spider already 

 in place on the plant, she was impelled to go and hunt for 

 another. Then having stung this, she proceeded to the 

 usual next step of digging a nest ; the available empty nest 

 that she had made shortly before was neglected because 

 the work of nest- making always follows, in the instinctive 

 cycle, the stinging of the prey. The hitch in the work due 

 to the removal of the first victim led to a repetition of the 

 whole process from the start ; the wasp showed no adapt- 

 ability to unusual conditions by making a change in the 

 usual sequence of her actions. Her nervous system appears 

 to be so attuned to the various stimulations and experiences 

 that each of them, as it is felt or completed, becomes an 

 incitement to the " doing of the next thing." 



Yet these facts are no justification for denying that the 

 insect may be a conscious being, even though its conscious- 

 ness be dim and feeble as compared with that of a vertebrate. 

 It is reasonable to believe that the insect's instinctive 

 routine has, to quote Lloyd Morgan, *' a psychological aspect 

 of awareness and desire." Though the " outline sketch of 

 behaviour " which is drawn, as it were, for the insect by 

 its long-inherited instinct, is rigid and unvarying, there may 

 be opportunity, at least in some instances, for the addition 

 by experience of " colour and shading," as well as clear 

 evidence of individual memory. For example, the Peckhams 

 described in detail the behaviour of a female pompilid wasp 

 Aporus fasciatus which had captured a spider larger than 

 herself and left it on a melon leaf while she sought a suitable 



