192 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



a previously prepared tunnel in the ground. After 

 lodging the victim in the blind end of the tunnel, the 

 wasp lays an egg upon it, then seals the entrance, 

 disappears and comes no more to the nest. 



I will here mention a few illustrations of the blind- 

 ness of instinct displayed by this species. The first 

 problem was : How will the wasp behave if, when in 

 search for plunder, it discovers, not a virile prey, but 

 a caterpillar already paralyzed with the head already 

 crushed? Will the wasp despise such prey, or will 

 it recognize that the caterpillar being paralyzed, there 

 is no need to repeat the process, that much of 

 its work has been already done, and that nothing 

 now remains but to drag away the larva and to 

 bury it ? 



I unearthed a caterpillar from a wasp's nest. It 

 lay motionless, paralyzed from the repeated stings of 

 its captor. On its left side, distant from its head by 

 one-third of its length, was attached the oval whitish 

 egg. I placed the exhumed caterpillar before a 

 wasp that was running about in search of prey. The 

 wasp rushed on it. Never had it found such a morsel 

 as this. Here was a prey that made no struggle to 

 escape, that needed no sting to overpower it. Yet 

 the wasp could not recognize this. It seized the 

 passive larva in its jaws and legs, pierced it eight 

 separate times with its sting, and finally crushed the 

 head between its jaws. All was labour lost. The 

 caterpillar had hours before been paralyzed by a 

 previous wasp ; its head macerated by other jaws. 

 But the wasp could not appreciate this. That the 

 caterpillar made no resistance had no influence on the 

 wasp. Struggle or no struggle, the force of instinct 



