The Eumenes 



half as much in weight or volume. The 

 amount of victuals, therefore, required to 

 bring them to their final development may 

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

 well-stocked cells belong to females; the 

 others, more meagrely supplied, belong to 

 males. 



But the egg is laid when the provisions 

 are stored; and this egg has a determined 

 sex, although 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 conclusion: the mother knows 

 beforehand the sex of the egg which she 

 is about to lay; l and this knowledge 

 enables 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 acquired? 



1 Cf. Bramble-bees and Others, by J. Henri Fabre, trans- 

 lated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. iv. — Trans- 

 lator's Note, 



n 



