The Mason- Wasps 



have room enough to move about at ease. 

 The condition is fulfilled: at the back, the 

 cell forms a comparatively spacious dining- 

 room: 



Is that all? Not yet. The dining- 

 room must not be encumbered like the rest 

 of the cell. The matter has been seen to: 

 the first course consists of a small number 

 of specimens. 



Have we done? By no means. It is 

 not of any use to have a narrow cylinder for 

 the larder: if the grubs straighten out, they 

 will slip lengthwise and disturb the nurse- 

 ling in the back-room. This has been 

 remedied: the game selected is a larva 

 which deliberately rolls itself into a bracelet 

 and maintains its position by its own tendency 

 to unbend. 



It is by the ingenious removal of this 

 series of difficulties that the Odynerus suc- 

 ceeds in leaving a family. We have seen 

 enough of her exquisite foresight to amaze 

 us. What would it be were nothing to re- 

 main concealed from our dull eyes ! 



Can the insect have acquired its skill 

 gradually, from generation to generation, 

 by a long series of casual experiments, of 

 blind gropings? Can such order be born 

 of chaos; such foresight of hazard; such 

 58 



