BLUE HUNTRESS 431 



strong enough, they commence to tear and chew automatic- 

 ally. A bit more or a bit less provender in the cell is of no 

 consequence whatever. Once started, the jaws continue to 

 work for a certain set length of time that allows for varia- 

 tion in the bulk of the stores. Thus, if the spider be a bit 

 large, it will be consumed readily enough. If a bit small 

 the larva will simply continue, as I have said, to Fletcherize 

 upon the air until the time limit set upon the active period 

 of its mandibles is up. The insect is an automaton, a slave 

 to a power that is not intelligence. 



As an experiment I introduce two spiders into a cell 

 where one is the normal provender. The larva consumes 

 nearly all of the feast, grows to an abnormal size, but even- 

 tually dies. This would appear to contradict the existence 

 of an invariable set of rules governing the insect's life, but 

 such is not the case. I have interfered in the normal course 

 of events and artificially changed those rules at the outset 

 by doubling the amount of provisions in the cell. The wasp's 

 life is like a chemical compound, the ingredients of which 

 correspond to these rules and depend upon one another for 

 the ultimate result. Thus if we alter the quantity of one 

 ingredient the desired result is not obtained. 



The experiment has in no way disproved that the crea- 

 ture's life progresses by hard and fast rules. On the other 

 hand it confirms the statement, and further, points out that 

 each rule depends upon the invariability of another for the 

 ultimate success of the wasp. It also tells us that feeding 

 is governed by the amount of provisions in the cell. Each 

 mouthful stimulates a certain number of strokes from the 

 mandibles. Thus, when the normal provender is consumed 

 by the larva, it still continues to chew until the stimulus is 

 gone. In the cell containing two spiders, the poor wasplet 

 found no end of good things. It ate one spider. Its man- 

 dibles continued toward the limit of their working hours and 

 came bump into the second spider. The stimulus was re- 

 newed, and its jaws commenced to work again eventually 



