CHAPTER XII 



SOME SOCIAL WASPS 

 Experiments on the Homing of Polistes pallipes 



The ability of Polistes pallipes to find its way home to the 

 nest when carried in complete darkness and liberated at 

 distant points has proved a fascinating and fruitful experi- 

 mental study. Fabre found that Cerceris tubercula returns 

 home in a fair proportion of instances, when liberated two, 

 or even three, kilometres from the nesting site. He also 

 found that a mason-bee exhibits similar ability. These, of 

 course, are solitary Hymenoptera. It is indeed marvellous 

 that even a few of them should return, in consideration of 

 the fact that these insects do their foraging near home and, 

 in all probability, had never before visited the spot from 

 whence they were liberated. Fabre lays undue stress upon 

 the fact that some of these insects returned, but fails to ex- 

 plain why the others did not do so. He cannot attribute 

 their return to memory; but, to use his own words: "to 

 some special faculty, which we must content ourselves with 

 recognizing by its astonishing effects without pretending to 

 explain it, so greatly does it transcend our own psychology." 

 We suppose, however, that he is willing to apply this last 

 statement only to those which made the successful return, 

 for this explanation, vague as it is, does not apply to those 

 which dropped by the wayside ; for them he offers no theory. 

 He neglects also to consider the age, experience and probably 

 the sex of his subjects, and to make the markings of identifi- 



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