The Ignorance of Instinct 



cell, although it is not uncommon to find 

 only three, or even two. Four appears to 

 me to be the normal number, first, because 

 it is the most frequent and, secondly, because, 

 when rearing young larvae dug up while they 

 were still engaged on their first joint, I found 

 that all of them, those actually provided with 

 only two or three pieces of game as well as 

 those which had four, easily managed the 

 various Crickets wherewith I served them 

 one by one, up to and including the fourth, 

 but that after this they refused all nourish- 

 ment, or barely touched the fifth ration. If 

 four Crickets are necessary to the larva to 

 acquire the full development called for by its 

 organization, why are sometimes only three, 

 sometimes only two provided for it? Why 

 this enormous difference in the quantity of 

 the victuals, some larvae having twice as much 

 as the others? It cannot be because of any 

 difference in the size of the dishes provided 

 to satisfy the grub's appetite, for all have 

 very much the same dimensions; and it can 

 therefore be due only to the wastage of game 

 on the way. We find, in fact, at the foot of 

 the banks whose upper stages are occupied 

 by the Sphex-wasps, Crickets that have been 

 paralysed but lost, owing to the slope of the 

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