THE STINGING HABIT IN WASPS, 227 



limp and unresisting burden it frequently takes an hour or two, 

 and with a struggling captive the day would not be long enough. 

 To bring so soft a creature into a manageable state by using the 

 mandibles would reduce it to a pulpy mass and deprive it of half 

 its value, and the process of malaxation, which often supple- 

 ments the stinging, can only be practiced after the caterpillar 

 is quiet. As to the numerous stings that are given by Ammo- 

 phila it is plain, from the variations that have been found, that 

 the number of wounds and the order in wdiich they are given 

 are not important factors in her life history. From what we 

 have seen, one sting, or at most three, one in the middle and 

 another at each extremity, would be quite sufficient for all her 

 purposes. Perhaps the others are supernumerary, like the several 

 nests made by many species of birds, all but one of which are 

 afterward destroyed or deserted, the purpose of the stinging, 

 nevertheless, being to overcome, just as the purpose of nest 

 building is nidification. In any case the extra stings cannot be 

 held to invalidate the hypothesis wliich we have offered to ex- 

 plain the general purpose of the act. 



