WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



two heads, the inferences that they warrant being left 

 for later consideration. Under the term Instinct we 

 place all complex acts that are performed previous to 

 experience and in a similar manner by all members of 

 the same sex and race, leaving out as non-essential, at 

 this time, the question of whether they are or are not 

 accompanied by consciousness. Under Intelligence we 

 place those conscious actions which are more or less 

 modifiable by experience. It is this power that enables 

 an insect to seek, accept, refuse, choose, to decline to 

 make use of this or to turn to account some other thing. 

 Many writers prefer the term Adaptation for these ac- 

 tivities, and it possesses certain advantages. With these 

 definitions in mind, let us group the activities of wasps 

 under the two heads. 



With the wasps of the genus Pelopseus we were pre- 

 sent on several occasions when the young emerged from 

 the pupa case and gnawed their way out of the mud cell. 

 They were limp, and their wings had not perfectly 

 hardened, and yet when we touched them they tried to 

 attack us, thrusting out the sting and moving the abdo- 

 men about in various directions. These movements 

 were well directed, and, so far as we could observe, 

 quite as perfect as in the adult wasp. Stinging, then, 

 is an instinctive act. 



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