The Life of the Fly 



seven are males and three hundred and seven 

 females. The average number of inmates, 

 therefore, is sixteen individuals; and there are 

 six females at least to one male. This dis- 

 parity is maintained, in more or less marked 

 proportions, whatever the species of the Bee 

 invaded. In the cocoons of the Mason-bee of 

 the Sheds, I discover the average proportion 

 to be six females to one male; in those of the 

 Mason-bee of the Walls, I find one male to 

 fifteen females. 



These facts, which I am unable to state with 

 any greater precision, are enough to give rise 

 to the suspicion that the males, who are even 

 tinier dwarfs than the females and who, more- 

 over, like all insects, are injured by a single 

 act of pairing, must, in most cases, remain 

 strangers to the females. Can the mothers, 

 in fact, dispense with their assistance, without 

 being deprived of offspring on that account? 

 I do not say yes, but I do not say no. The 

 duality of the sexes is a hard problem. Why 

 two sexes ? Why not just one ? It would have 

 been much simpler and saved a great deal of 

 foolery. Why such a thing as sex, when the 

 tuber of the Jerusalem artichoke can do with- 

 out it? These are the pregnant questions 

 suggested to me, in the end, by Monodonto- 



76 





