More Hunting Wasps 



Scarabaeus, living in vegetable mould, the 

 larva of the Anoxia, dwelling in the sand, 

 and the larva of the Cockchafer in our cul- 

 tivated fields have not also acquired the 

 faculty of walking on their backs? In their 

 galleries they follow the chimney-sweep's 

 methods quite as cleverly as the Cetonia- 

 grub; to move forward they make valiant 

 use of their backs without yet having come 

 to ambling with their bellies in 'the air. 

 Can they have neglected to accommodate 

 themselves to the demands of their environ- 

 ment? If evolution and environment cause 

 the topsy-turvy progress of the one, I have 

 the right, if words have any meaning what- 

 ever, to demand as much of the others, since 

 their organization is so much alike and their 

 mode of life identical. 



I have but little respect for theories which, 

 when confronted with two similar cases, are 

 unable to interpret the one without contra- 

 dicting the other. They make me laugh 

 when they become merely childish. For ex- 

 ample: why has the tiger a coat streaked 

 black and yellow? A matter of environ- 

 ment, replies one of our evolutionary mas- 

 ters. Ahibushed in bamboo thickets where 

 the golden radiance of the sun is intersected 

 by stripes of shadow cast by the foliage, the 



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