The Ignorance of Instinct 



things, the Sphex hunts down her prey, lays 

 an egg and closes her burrow. The hunting 

 has been done; the game, it is true, has been 

 withdrawn by me from the cell; never mind: 

 the hunting has been done, the egg has been 

 laid; and now comes the business of closing 

 up the home. This is what the insect does, 

 without another thought, without in the least 

 suspecting the futility of her present labours. 



Experiment III 



To know everything and to know nothing, 

 according as it acts under normal or excep- 

 tional conditions : that is the strange anti- 

 thesis presented by the insect race. Other 

 examples, also drawn from the Sphex tribe, 

 will confirm this conclusion. The White- 

 edged Sphex (5. alhisecta) attacks medium- 

 sized Locusts, whereof the different species 

 to be found in the neighbourhood of the 

 burrow all furnish her with their tribute 

 of victims. Because of the abundance of 

 these Acridians, there is no need to go hunting 

 far afield. When the burrow, which takes 

 the form of a perpendicular shaft, is ready, 

 the Sphex merely explores the purlieus of 

 her lair, within a small radius, and is not long 



2(Xl 



