( clxxix ) 



passages, Wings would be an advantage not to be surrendered, 

 and Size comparatively a matter of indifference. 



I will now ask your attention to a number of t^ characters, 

 all of which seem to me explainable as facilitating the pre- 

 liminaries of pairing. These preliminaries are summed up 

 under four chief heads in a passage in Darwin's Descent of 

 Man, which I will try — retaining as nearly as possible his 

 actual words — to condense into a single sentence. Throughout 

 the highest sub-kingdoms of animals, the Arthropoda and the 

 Vertebrata, loe find males provided with special oi'gans for Dis- 

 covering, Reaching, Charming, and Securing the females. Of 

 these four categories I think that the first and third (Dis- 

 covering and Charming) have played by far the most important 

 part in modifying the structures of $ Aculeates. It may be, 

 and it probably is the case, that the extreme swiftness of 

 flight and general agility and mobility of many c^,^ in this 

 group has been developed as an advantage to them in Reach- 

 ing their partners ; but I can quote no instance in which the 

 characters either of their legs or their wings show any obvious 

 special modification for that purpose. There are a few instances 

 of ^$ in the Scoliidae and Tiphiidae (Fossors) whose alar 

 neuration is slightly more complete than that of their $9. 

 But the mechanical consequences, if any, of these differences 

 are quite uncertain ; and I have reasons for thinking, that in 

 these cases the $ neuration has been reduced, rather than that 

 of the ^ augmented. Some ^ legs, again, are abnormally long 

 — front-legs in a group of Gorytes spp. (Fossors), middle legs 

 in many Anthophora spp. (Bees), etc., etc. — but I do not 

 believe that in any of these cases they enable the $ to " Reach " 

 his $ more quickly. Securing the 5 — i. e. seizing her, and 

 retaining her when seized — may perhaps (as Darwin has sug- 

 gested) account for certain paradoxical leg-characters, e. g. the 

 extraordinary front-legs of Crabro cribrarius. But I confess 

 to grave doubts whether these and many similar eccentricities 

 (not to say malformations) of particular leg-joints in ^ Bees 

 and Fossors would not rather diminish than increase their 

 efficacy as grappling-instruments. And besides, all that I 

 have seen or heard from other eye-witnesses convinces me 

 that it is normally not with the legs, but with the mandibles, 



