More Hunting Wasps 



suit special energies, which do not suit every 

 herbivorous animal. It assuredly requires a 

 stomach made expressly for the purpose to 

 digest aconite, colchicum, hemlock or hen- 

 bane; those who have not such a stomach 

 could never endure a diet of that sort. Be- 

 sides, the Mithridates ^ fed on poison resist 

 only a single toxin. The caterpillar of the 

 Death's-head Hawk-moth, which delights in 

 the solanin of the potato, would be killed 

 by the acrid principle of the tithymals that 

 form the food of the Spurge-caterpillar. 

 The herbivorous larvae are therefore per- 

 force exclusive in their tastes, because differ- 

 ent genera of vegetables possess very differ- 

 ent properties. 



With this variety in the products of the 

 plant, the animal, a consumer far more than 

 a producer, contrasts the uniformity in its 

 own products. The albumen in the egg of 

 the Ostrich or the Chaffinch, the casein in the 

 milk of the Cow or the Ass, the muscular 

 flesh of the Wolf or the Sheep, the Screech- 

 owl or the Field-mouse, the Frog or the 

 Earth-worm: these remain albumen, casein 

 or fibrin, edible if not eaten. Here are no 



1 Mithridates VI. King of Pontus {d. B.C. 63) is said 

 to have secured immunity from poison by talting in- 

 creased doses of it. — Translator's Note. 

 196 



