LARVAL SACRIFICE 39 



skillful employees of histogenesis, who in turn rebuild the house 

 along more modern lines. 



Twenty-four days after pupation the insect issues from the cocoon, 

 drills a neat hole through the wall of its nursery and emerges into 

 the sunlight a perfect insect. Behind her, she leaves a few, very tiny 

 pellets of white excreta. These are the rusty nails from the old 

 structure. They are all I can find of the larval body that is not 

 incorporated in the new. 



Fruit from the tree of instinctive wasp-love, the newborn insect 

 is only an atom in the world, but what a bundle of unsolved mysteries 

 to the humble student of her secrets! At her "second birth," she 

 becomes her own mother ! Not content with skin cells alone as build- 

 ing material, histolysis and histogenesis have rebuilt the Huntress 

 from herself. She flies into the world with a fresh coat of paint, 

 remodeled, a thing brought up to date, but somewhere underneath, 

 lie the old timbers, reshaped and sawn to meet the new plan! 



