The Theory of Parasitism 



wants to continue her laying, to make her 

 home in an unoccupied tube. The Osmia 

 thinks differently. Her reasons for acting as 

 she does escape me. Can there be ill-condi- 

 tioned characters among her, characters that 

 delight in a neighbour's ruin? There are 

 among men. 



In the privacy of her native haunts, the 

 Osmia, I have no doubt, behaves as in my 

 crystal galleries. Towards the end of the 

 building-operations, she violates others' dwell- 

 ings. By keeping to the first cell, which it is 

 not necessary to empty in order to reach the 

 next, she can utilize the provisions on the spot 

 and shorten to that extent the longest part of 

 her work. As usurpations of this kind have 

 had ample time to become inveterate, to be- 

 come inbred in the race, I ask for a descend- 

 ant of the Osmia who eats her grandmother's 

 egg in order to establish her own. 



This descendant I shall not be shown; but 

 I may be told that she is in process of forma- 

 tion. The outrages which I have described 

 are preparing a future parasite. The trans- 

 formists dogmatize about the past and dogma- 

 tise about the future, but as seldom as pos- 

 sible talk to us about the present. Trans- 

 243 



