THE EUMENES 213 



have the same appetite: what one nursling demands a 

 second must demand, unless we have here a different 

 menu, according to the sexes. In the perfect stage 

 the males are smaller than the females, are hardly half 

 as much in weight or volume. The amount of victuals, 

 therefore, required to bring them to their final develop- 

 ment may be reduced by one-half. In that case, the 

 well-stocked cells belong to females; the others, more 

 meagerly supplied, belong to males. 



But the egg is laid when the provisions are stored ; 

 and this egg has a determined sex, though the most 

 minute examination is not able to discover the differences 

 which will decide the hatching of a female or a male. 

 We are therefore needs driven to this strange con- 

 clusion: the mother knows beforehand the sex of the 

 egg which she is about to lay; and this knowledge 

 allows her to fill the larder according to the appetite 

 of the future grub. What a strange world, so wholly 

 different from ours ! We fall back upon a special sense 

 to explain the Ammophila's hunting; what can we fall 

 back upon to account for this intuition of the future? 

 Can the theory of chances play a part in the hazy 

 problem? If nothing is logically arranged with a fore- 

 seen object, how is this clear vision of the invisible ac- 

 quired ? 



The capsules of Eumenes pomiformis are literally 

 crammed with game. It is true that the morsels are 

 very small. My notes speak of fourteen green cater- 

 pillars in one cell and sixteen in a second cell. I have 

 no other information about the integral diet of this Wasp, 



