UNDER THE MAPLES 



that one difference between the insect world and 

 the world of animal life to which we belong, which 

 Maeterlinck has forgotten to point out, is this: 



In the vertebrate world, the male rules; the fe- 

 male plays a secondary part. In the insect world 

 the reverse is true. Here the female is supreme and 

 often eats up the male after she has been fertilized 

 by him. Motherhood is the primary fact, father- 

 hood the secondary. It is the female mosquito 

 that torments the world. It is the female spider 

 that spins the web and traps the flies. Size, craft, 

 and power go with the female. The female spider 

 eats up the male after he has served her purpose; 

 her caresses mean death. The female scorpion de- 

 vours the male in the same way. Among our wild 

 bees it is the queen alone that survives the winter 

 and carries on the race. The big noisy blow-flies on 

 the window-pane are females. With the honey 

 bees the males are big and loud, but are without 

 any authority, and are almost as literally destroyed 

 by the female as is the male spider. The queen bee 

 does not eat her mate, but she disembowels him. 

 The work of the hive is done by the neuters. In the 

 vertebrate world it is chiefly among birds of prey 

 that the female is the larger and bolder; the care of 

 the young devolves largely upon her. Yes, there is 

 another exception: Among the fishes, the females 

 are, as a rule, larger than the males; the immense 

 number of eggs which they carry brings this about. 



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