More Hunting Wasps 



whatever kind, that thought of feed- 

 ing her progeny on a Cetonia-grub or on 

 any other large piece of game demanding 

 long preservation could necessarily have left 

 no descendants unless the art of consuming 

 food without causing putrescence had been 

 practised, with all its scrupulous caution, 

 from the first generation onwards. Having 

 as yet learnt nothing by habit or by atavistic 

 transmission, since it was making a first be- 

 ginning, the nurseling would bite into its 

 provender at random. It would be starv- 

 ing, it would have no respect for its prey. 

 It would carve its joint at random; and we 

 have just seen the fatal consequence of an 

 ill-directed bite. It would perish — I have 

 just proved this in the most positive man- 

 ner — it would perish, poisoned by its vic- 

 tim, already dead and putrid. 



To prosper, it would have, although a 

 novice, to know what was permitted and 

 what forbidden in ransacking the creature's 

 entrails; nor would it be enough for the 

 larva to be approximately in possession of 

 this difficult secret: it would be indispensable 

 that it should possess the secret completely, 

 for a single bite, if delivered before the right 

 moment, would inevitably involve its own 

 demise. The Scoliae of my experiments are 

 78 



