AMMOPHILA AND HER CATERPILLARS 



consequently be destroyed; or a sting in the wrong 

 place might cause the death of the caterpillar and thus 

 the death of the wasp larva, which, he thinks, can be 

 nourished only by perfectly fresh food. 



The conclusions that we draw from the study of this 

 genus differ from these in the most striking manner. 

 The one preeminent, unmistakable, and ever present 

 fact is variability. Variability in every particular, in 

 the shape of the nest and the manner of digging it, in 

 the condition of the nest (whether closed or open) when 

 left temporarily, in the method of stinging the prey, in 

 the degree of malaxation, in the manner of carrying the 

 victim, in the way of closing the nest, and last, and 

 most important of all, in the condition produced in the 

 victims of the stinging, some of them dying and becom- 

 ing "veritable cadavers," to use an expressive term of 

 Fabre's, long before the larva is ready to begin on them, 

 while others live long past the time at which they would 

 have been attacked and destroyed if we had not inter- 

 fered with the natural course of events. And all this 

 variability we get from a study of nine wasps and fifteen 

 caterpillars ! 



In his chapter on "Methode des Ammophiles" Fabre 

 says that each species has its own tactics, allowing no 

 novitiate. "Not one could have left descendants if it 

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