The Ignorance of Instinct 



thing is difficult to instinct, so long as the act 

 is not outside the unvarying cycle of animal 

 existence; on the other hand, nothing is easy 

 to instinct, if the act is at all removed from 

 the course usually pursued. The insect which 

 astounds us, which terrifies us with its ex- 

 traordinary intelligence surprises us, the next 

 moment, with its stupidity, when confronted 

 with some simple fact that happens to lie out- 

 side its ordinary practice. The Sphex will 

 supply us with a few instances. 



Let us follow her dragging her Ephippiger 

 home. If fortune smile upon us, we may 

 witness some such little scene as that which I 

 will now describe. When entering her shel- 

 ter under the rock, where she has made her 

 burrow, the Sphex finds, perched on a blade 

 of grass, a Praying Mantis, a carnivorous 

 insect which hides cannibal habits under a 

 pious appearance. The danger threatened 

 by this robber ambushed on her path must be 

 known to the Sphex, for she lets go her game 

 and pluckily rushes upon the Mantis, to in- 

 flict some heavy blows and dislodge her, or 

 at all events to frighten her and inspire her 

 with respect. The robber does not move, 

 but closes her lethal machinery, the two ter- 

 rible saws of the arm and fore-arm. The 

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