WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



deductions which Fabre has drawn as to the importance 

 of the instincts of the French group are seen to be un- 

 founded. The American species violate nearly every 

 principle which he considers necessary to their existence, 

 and yet they flourish and multiply. For our part we 

 find nothing in the actions of Pelopaeus that needs to 

 be explained — nothing that is not well adapted to the 

 conditions under which each species works. The mea- 

 sure of praise or blame which we mete out to these 

 depredators is merely a way of saying whether we would 

 or would not follow their methods in provisioning our 

 houses and rearing our children. Perhaps we would 

 always use large spiders and would always have them 

 fresh; but it is evident that tastes differ, and the matter 

 is so purely a subjective affair that it will have to go 

 unsettled. In any event, whether her victims be strong 

 or feeble, old or young, big or little, fresh or dry, they 

 certainly serve admirably in enabling Pelopaeus to rear 

 brood after brood, and to people the different parts of 

 the earth with abundant representatives of her kind. 



