The Hunting Wasps 



tion in vain: deprived of masters, the des- 

 nucador's descendants would return to the 

 primitive state of ignorance. Heredity 

 does not hand down the art of kiUing by 

 severing the spinal marrow: no man is born 

 a cattle-slayer by the desnucador's method. 

 Now here is the Ammophila, a slayer of 

 Caterpillars by a far more cunning method. 

 Where are the professors of the art of sting- 

 ing? There are not any. When the Wasp 

 rends her cocoon and issues from under- 

 ground, her predecessors have long ceased to 

 live; she herself will perish without seeing 

 her successors. Once the larder is stocked 

 and the egg laid, all connection with the off- 

 spring ends; this year's perfect insect dies 

 while next year's insect, still in the larval 

 stage, slumbers below ground in its silken 

 cot. Absolutely nothing, therefore, is trans- 

 mitted by practical illustration. The Am- 

 mophila is born a finished desniicador even 

 as we are born feeders at our mother's breast. 

 The nurseling uses its suction-pump, the Am- 

 mophila her dart, without ever being taught; 

 and both are past masters of the difl'icult art 

 from the first attempt. There we have in- 

 stinct, the unconscious impulse that forms an 

 essential part of the conditions of life and is 

 398 



