The Hunting Wasps 



hope of success. He can come and take one 

 lesson from the Sphex. She, without ever 

 being taught it, without ever seeing it prac- 

 tised by others, understands her surgery 

 through and through. She knows the most 

 delicate mysteries of the physiology of the 

 nerves, or rather she behaves as if she did. 

 She knows that under her victim's skull there 

 is a circlet of nervous nuclei, something simi- 

 lar to the brain of the higher animals. She 

 knows that this main centre of innervation 

 controls the action of the mouth-parts and 

 moreover is the seat of the will, without 

 whose orders not a single muscle acts; lastly, 

 she knows that, by injuring this sort of brain, 

 she will cause all resistance to cease, the insect 

 no longer possessing any will to resist. As 

 for the mode of operating, this is the easiest 

 matter in the world to her; and, when we 

 have been taught in her school, we are free 

 to try her process in our turn. The instru- 

 ment employed is no longer the sting: the in- 

 sect, in its wisdom, has deemed compression 

 preferable to a poisoned thrust. Let us ac- 

 cept its decision, for we shall see presently 

 how prudent it is to be convinced of our own 

 ignorance in the presence of the animal's 

 knowledge. Lest by editing my account I 

 172 



