The Hunting Wasps 



accuse her of such stupidity. She is aware 

 of it. But then why that other piece of stu- 

 pidity which makes her close and very 

 conscientiously close an empty burrow, 

 one which she does not purpose to victual 

 later? Here the work of closing is useless, 

 is supremely absurd; no matter: the insect 

 performs it with the same ardour as though 

 the larva's future depended on it. The in- 

 sect's various instinctive actions are then 

 fatally linked together. Because one thing 

 has been done, a second thing must inevitably 

 be done to complete the first or to prepare 

 the way for its completion; and the two acts 

 depend so closely upon each other that the 

 performing of the first entails that of the 

 second, even when, owing to casual circum- 

 stances, the second has become not only inop- 

 portune but sometimes actually opposed to 

 the insect's interests. What object can the 

 Sphex have in blocking up a burrow which 

 has become useless, now that it no longer 

 contains the victim and the egg, and which 

 will always remain useless, since the insect 

 will not return to it? The only way to ex- 

 plain this inconsequent action is to look upon 

 it as the inevitable complement of the actions 

 that went before. In the normal order of 

 202 



