Reflections upon Insect Psychology 



trary; and my proofs are unanswerable. In 

 the first volume of these Souvenirs,^ I demon- 

 strated by experiment that Erasmus Darwin's 

 Wasp was but obeying her instinct, which is 

 to cut up the captured game and to keep only 

 the most nourishing part, the thorax. Whethet 

 the day be perfectly calm or whether the 

 wind blow, whether she be in the shelter of a 

 dense thicket or in the open, I see the Wasp 

 proceed to separate the succulent from the 

 tough; I see her reject the legs, the wings, the 

 head and the abdomen, retaining only the 

 breast as pap for her larvas. Then what value 

 has this dissection as an argument in favour 

 of the insect's reasoning-powers when the 

 wind blows? It has no value at all, for it 

 would take place just the same in absolutely 

 calm weather. Erasmus Darwin jumped too 

 quickly to his conclusion, which was the out- 

 come of his mental bias and not of the logic 

 of things. If he had first enquired into the 

 Wasp's habits, he would not have brought for- 

 ward as a serious argument an incident which 

 had no connection with the important question 

 of animal reason. 



^Cf. Insect Life: chap. ix. — Translator's Note. 

 163 



