More Hunting Wasps 



slons. The sacrificer brushes her wings for 

 a moment and polishes her antennae by pass- 

 ing them through her mouth, an habitual sign 

 of tranquillity returning after the emotions 

 of the conflict; she seizes the game by the 

 neck, takes it in her legs and flies away 

 with it. 



What do you say to it all? Do not the 

 scientist's theory and the insect's practice 

 agree most admirably? Has not the ani- 

 mal accomplished to perfection what ana- 

 tomy and physiology enabled us to foretell? 

 Instinct, a gratuitous attribute, an uncon- 

 scious inspiration, rivals knowledge, that 

 most costly acquisition. What strikes me 

 most Is the sudden recoil after the first 

 thrust of the sting. The Hairy Ammophila, 

 operating on her caterpillar, likewise recoils, 

 but progressively, from one segment to the 

 next. Her deliberate surgery might receive 

 a quasl-explanation if we ascribe it to a cert- 

 ain uniformity. With the Tachytes and the 

 Mantis this paltry argument escapes us. 

 Here are no lancet-pricks regularly distri- 

 buted ; on the contrary, the operating-method 

 betrays a lack of symmetry which would be 

 inconceivable, if the organization of the pa- 

 tient did not serve as a guide. The 

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