INSECT BEHAVIOR 



thought, in search of a new supply of spiders. But this was not the 

 case, as we shall see. I now left the immediate locality of the nest, 

 fearing that perhaps my continued presence would alarm the subject 

 of my experiment. In an hour I returned, only to find that the wasp 

 had ignored the fact that the cell had been emptied and had com- 

 pletely resealed it without replacing the spiders or her egg. 



In this case the insect clearly demonstrated her inability to notice 

 even such a radical alteration as had been made in the cell contents 

 during her short absence. She simply proceeded to accomplish a 

 certain regular course of inborn events and, owing to the fact that it 

 did not occur to her to alter any of these, even under the present cir- 

 cumstances, it is plain that there existed nothing in the form of in- 

 telligence, but simply innate muscular actions of a reflective or un- 

 conscious nature. 



But now let us turn to the subject of my last experiment, which, it 

 will be remembered, was the closely related paper-making cousin 

 of the mud-dauber. As I have stated before, the paper wasps do 

 not seal up their cells, nor do they even store them with nourishing 

 food for the young. Owing to this state of affairs, it would, of course, 

 be impossible to effect a similar alteration upon their nest as upon that 

 of the mud-dauber. But the purpose of my experiments was not sim- 

 ply to place the two species in identical circumstances, but to dis- 

 cover, if when placed under extraordinary conditions, either would 

 display in their actions any evidences of intelligence; or in fact any- 

 thing which might give us better reason for believing that insects are 

 sometimes governed by a power above mere instinct. 



At the time of this experiment, the paper wasps were adding sev- 

 eral new cells to the nest, which had grown too small for the rapidly 

 increasing colony. These new cells were nearly finished ; all but one, 

 and of this perhaps a third had been constructed by the tireless in- 

 sects. As I reached the nest, a wasp was seen working upon the un- 



