The Return to the Nest 



the seat of a special sense able to guide in- 

 sects. I have already shown how the am- 

 putation of those organs seems in no way 

 to impede the Wasp's investigations. Let 

 us try once more, under more complicated 

 conditions. I seize the Bembex, cut off her 

 antennae at the roots and at once release her. 

 Goaded by pain, maddened at having been 

 imprisoned in my fingers, the insect darts off 

 faster than an arrow. I have to wait for a 

 good hour, very uncertain as to whether it 

 will come back. The Wasp arrives however 

 and, with her unvarying precision, alights 

 quite close to her door, whose appearance I 

 have changed for the fourth time. The site 

 of the nest is now covered with a spreading 

 mosaic of pebbles the size of a walnut. My 

 work, which, as regards the Bembex, sur- 

 passes what the megalithic monuments of 

 Brittany or the rows of menhirs at Carnac 

 are to us, is powerless to deceive the muti- 

 lated insect. Though deprived of her an- 

 tennae, the Wasp finds her entrance in the 

 middle of my mosaic as easily as the same 

 insect, supplied with those organs, would 

 have done under other conditions. This 

 time I let the faithful mother go indoors in 

 peace. 



