The Leucospes 



many of these already visited spots, concern- 

 ing which I possessed the most authentic docu- 

 ments, I saw the insect return a second, a 

 third and even a fourth time, either on the 

 same day or some while after, and drive its 

 inoculating-thread in again, at precisely the 

 same place, as though nothing had happened. 

 Was it the same individual repeating her 

 operation in a cell which she had visited be- 

 fore but forgotten, or different individuals 

 coming one after the other to lay an egg in a 

 compartment thought to be unoccupied? I 

 cannot say, having neglected to mark the 

 operators, for fear of disturbing them. 



As there is nothing, except the mark of my 

 pencil, a mark devoid of meaning to the in- 

 sect, to indicate that the auger has already 

 been at work there, it may easily happen that 

 the same operator, finding under her feet a 

 spot already exploited by herself but effaced 

 from her memory, repeats the thrust of her 

 tool in a compartment which she believes her- 

 self to be discovering for the first time. How- 

 ever retentive its memory for places may be. 

 we cannot admit that the insect rememberc 

 for weeks on end, as well as point by point, 

 the topography of a nest covering a surface 

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