More Hunting Wasps 



gramnivorous nestling is first fed on grubs, 

 which are better adapted to the niceties of 

 its stomach; many of the minutest new-born 

 creatures, being at once left to their own de- 

 vices, take to animal food. In this way the 

 original method of nourishment is continued 

 for all alike: the method which allows flesh 

 to be made from flesh and blood from blood, 

 with no chemical process beyond the simplest 

 modification. At maturity, when the stom- 

 ach has acquired its full strength, vegetable 

 food is adopted, involving a more compli- 

 cated chemistry but easier to obtain. Milk 

 is followed by fodder, worms by seeds, the 

 prey in the burrow by the nectar of the flow- 

 ers. 



This supplies a partial explanation of the 

 twofold diet of the Hymenoptera with car- 

 nivorous larvae : meat first, honey next. But 

 then the note of interrogation is shifted. It 

 stood elsewhere; it now stands here. Why 

 is the Osmia, who as a larva fares so well 

 on albumen, fed on honey at the start? 

 Why do the Bee-tribe receive a vegetable 

 diet when the other members of the order 

 receive an animal diet? 



If I were a believer in evolution, I should 

 say yes, by the fact of its germ, every animal 

 is originally carnivorous. The insect in par- 

 278 



