342 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 
SoLItaARY WASPS 
Tue Instincrs AND Hasrrs oF THE SOLITARY Wasps. By George W. Peckham and 
Elizabeth G. Peckham. §8vo, pp. 245; 14 plates (2 colonred). Wisconsin Geo- 
logical and Natural History Survey Bulletin No. 2. Scientific Series No 1. 
1898. 
In discussing the problem of Instinct, Darwin wrote, “If it can be 
shown that instincts do vary ever so little, then I can see no difficulty 
in natural selection preserving and continually accumulating variations 
of instinct to any extent that was profitable.” This sentence might 
well serve as the text for the charming book before us, and seems to 
have been ever present in the minds of our authors during many 
hours spent in the sweat of the brow, in trying postures, and under a 
blazing sun in ‘the successful endeavour to learn something from the 
Solitary Wasps haunting a garden in Wisconsin. The result of their 
toils may be given in their concluding words :—“ The general impres- 
sion that remains with us as a result of our study of these activities 
is that their complexity and perfection have been greatly over- 
estimated. We have found them in all stages of development, and 
are convinced that they have passed through many degrees, from the 
simple to the complex, by the action of natural selection. Indeed, 
we find in them beautiful examples of the survival of the fittest.” 
This is a striking contrast to Fabre’s remark that had Darwin 
known the results of his latest observations on the stinging 
habits of Solitary Wasps, he would have frankly avowed his in- 
ability to make instinct enter the mould of his formula. Mr and Mrs 
Peckham show conclusively that the popular belief that these wasps 
sting their prey for the purpose of paralysing but not killing, in 
order that a fresh and not putrid supply of food may be at hand for 
the offspring is far from correct. Great stress has been laid upon this 
hitherto accepted belief by Eimer, Romanes, and others, and in view 
of its wide acceptance among zoologists and the general public it is 
worth giving a brief outline of the results of our authors’ observations 
on this phenomenon. Out of forty-five species of Solitary Wasps 
observed by them about one-third kill their prey outright. Of the 
remainder there is not a single species in which the sting is given 
with invariable accuracy ; in fact, they scarcely sting twice alike since 
the victims of the same wasp may be killed at once, or may live from 
one day to six weeks, or even ultimately recover; and this even after 
treatment by the most skilled surgeons in the hymenopteron world. 
It is thus at once evident that the sting is not invariably thrust with 
unfailing accuracy into the nerve centres, and, further, that dead meat 
is quite as acceptable to the larvae as living flesh—as indeed was 
fully proved by actual observation. It is of great interest to find that 
the poison of the wasp’s sting has a great paralysing power when in- 
troduced into the body of the victim at any point, so that the prey is 
rendered helpless without the necessity of a complete knowledge of 
invertebrate anatomy on the part of the wasp. Thus, a leg was 
broken off a small cray fish, and a Polistes fusca made to thrust its 
sting into the exposed end of the stump, with the result that the cray 
fish was instantly paralysed and died after a few hours. Similar 
results followed from causing a Polistes to sting a large spider in 
