More Hunting Wasps 



fed upon eight or ten, a female. In short, 

 abundant provisions and spacious cells yield 

 females; scanty provisions and narrow cells 

 yield males. This is a law upon which I 

 may henceforth rely. 



At the stage which we have now reached 

 a question arises, a question of major im- 

 portance, touching the most nebulous aspect 

 of embryogeny. How is it that the larva 

 of the Philanthus, to take a particular case, 

 receives three to five Bees from its mother 

 when it is to become a female and not more 

 than two when it is to become a male? 

 Here the various head of game are iden- 

 tical in size, in flavour, in nutritive proper- 

 ties. The food-value is precisely in propor- 

 tion to the number of items supplied, a help- 

 ful detail which eliminates the uncertainties 

 wherein we might be left by the provision of 

 game of different species and varying sizes. 

 How is it, then, that a host of Bees and 

 Wasps, of honey-gatherers as well as hunt- 

 resses, store a larger or smaller quantity of 

 victuals in their cells according as the nurse- 

 lings are to become females or males? 



The provisions are stored before the eggs 

 are laid; and these provisions are measured 

 by the needs of the sex of an egg still inside 

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