Reflections upon Insect Psychology 



nected with a more remote occupation; it re- 

 lates to a completed task with which, under 

 normal conditions, the insect is no longer con- 

 cerned. To meet this emergency, the creature 

 would have to retrace its psychic course; it 

 would have to do all over again what it has 

 just finished, before turning its attention to 

 anything else. Is the insect capable of this? 

 Will it be able to leave the present and return 

 to the past ? Will it decide to hark back to a 

 task that is much more pressing than the one 

 on which it is engaged ? If it did all this, then 

 we should really have evidence of a modicum 

 of reason. The question shall be settled by 

 experiment. 



We will begin by taking a few Incidents 

 that come under the first heading. A Mason- 

 bee has finished the first layer of the covering 

 of the cell. She has gone In search of a sec- 

 ond pellet of mortar wherewith to strengthen 

 her work. In her absence, I prick the lid with 

 a needle and widen the hole thus made, until 

 It Is half the size of the opening. The insect 

 returns and repairs the damage. It was origin- 

 ally engaged on the lid and Is merely con- 

 tinuing its work In mending that lid. 



A second is still at her first row of bricks. 

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