Rationing According to Sex 



are still on the same side, in the Cerceres, 

 the Stizi, the Spheges, the Chalicodomae and 

 many more. It is therefore the rule that 

 the male is smaller than the female. There 

 are of course some exceptions, though not 

 many; and I am far from denying them. I 

 will mention certain Anthidia where the male 

 is the larger of the two. Nevertheless, in 

 the great majority of cases the female has 

 the advantage. 



And this is as it should be. It is the 

 mother, the mother alone, who laboriously 

 digs underground galleries and chambers, 

 kneads the plaster for coating the cells, 

 builds the dwelling-house of cement and bits 

 of grit, bores the wood and divides the bur- 

 row into storeys, cuts the disks of leaf which 

 will be joined together to form honey-pots, 

 works up the resin gathered in drops from 

 the wounds in the pine-trees to build ceilings 

 in the empty spiral of a Snail-shell, hunts the 

 prey, paralyses it and drags it Indoors, 

 gathers the pollen-dust, prepares the honey 

 in her crop, stores and mixes the paste. 

 This severe labour, so imperious and so act- 

 ive, in which the insect's whole life is spent, 

 manifestly demands a bodily strength which 

 would be quite useless to the male, the 

 amorous trifler. Thus, as a general rule, in 

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