The Hunting Wasps 



stand? I should also like to understand how 

 the Ammophila infallibly finds her caterpil- 

 lar's burrow with the aid of her antennae. It 

 is not a case of the sense of smell: we should 

 have to presume it to possess an unparalleled 

 delicacy, while recognizing that it is exer- 

 cised by an organ in which no provision 

 seems made for the perception of smells. 



What a number of other incomprehensible 

 things do we not ascribe to the insect's sense 

 of smell! We are satisfied with a word: the 

 explanation is ready-found, without laborious 

 search. But, if we care to consider the mat- 

 ter thoroughly, if we compare the requisite 

 array of facts, then the cliff of the unknown 

 rises abruptly, not to be climbed by the path 

 which we insist on following. Let us then 

 change our path and admit that animals may 

 have other means of information than our 

 own. Our senses do not represent the sum 

 total of the methods whereby an animal com- 

 municates with that which is not itself: there 

 are others not capable of comparison, how- 

 ever remote, with those which we possess. 



If the act of the Ammophila were an iso- 

 lated fact, I should not have lingered over 

 it as I have done; but I propose to speak of 

 others stranger still, which will carry convic- 

 380 



