364 ENTOMOLOGY 



made near the spot upon which the prey of the wasp, whatever 

 it may be, is deposited temporarily." 



If we take, as one criterion of intelligence, the power to 

 choose between alternatives, then insects are more intelligent 

 than is generally admitted. The control of locomotion, the 

 selection of prey, and the avoidance of enemies, as results of 

 experience, indicate powers of discrimination. The power of 

 intercommunication, conceded to exist among the social Hy- 

 menoptera, implies some degree of intelligence. 



If instinct is blind, or mechanical, with no adjustment of 

 means to ends, then a pronounced individuality of action must 

 signify something more than instinct as in the case of the 

 Ammophila. In regard to a female Pompilus scelestus, which 

 had dragged a large spider nearly to her nest, the Peckhams 

 observe : " Presently she went to look at her nest and seemed 

 to be struck with a thought that had already occurred to us 

 that it was decidedly too small to hold the spider. Back she 

 went for another survey of her bulky victim, measured it with 

 her eye, without touching it, drew her conclusions, and at once 

 returned to the nest and began to make it larger. We have 

 several times seen wasps enlarge their holes when a trial had 

 demonstrated that the spider would not go in, but this seemed 

 a remarkably intelligent use of the comparative faculty." 



From the standpoint of pure instinct, indeed, much of the 

 behavior of the solitary wasps is inexplicable; while the actions 

 of the social Hymenoptera have led some of the most critical 

 students to ascribe intelligence to these insects. The activities 

 of the harvesting ants, the military or the slave-holding species, 

 are of such a nature that the possibility of education by experi- 

 ence and instruction is strong, to say the least. In fact, Forel 

 has maintained that a young ant is actually trained to its 

 domestic duties by its older companions. Miss Enteman, on 

 the contrary, says : " Wasps do not imitate one another. In- 

 stinct and individual experience account sufficiently for their 

 powers, and their apparent cooperation is due entirely to the 

 accident of their being born in the same nest." She finds that 



