Bramble-bees and Others 



The Hairy Ammonphila gives her larva a 

 single Caterpillar, a large one, paralysed by as 

 ( many pricks of her sting as it has nervous 

 centres in its thorax and abdomen.- Her surgi- 

 cal skill in subduing the monster is instinct 

 displayed in a form which makes short work 

 of any inclination to see in it an acquired 

 habit. In an art that can leave no one to 

 practise it in the future unless that one be per- 

 fect at the outset, of what avail are happy 

 chances, atavistic tendencies, the mellowing 

 hand of time? But the grey Caterpillar, 

 sacrificed one day, may be succeeded on an- 

 other day by a green, yellow or striped Cater- 

 pillar. There you have discernment, which 

 is quite capable of recognizing the regulation 

 prey under very diverse garbs. 



The Megachiles build their honey-jars with 

 disks cut out of leaves; certain Anthidia make 

 felted cotton wallets; others fashion pots out 

 of resin. There you have instinct. Will any 

 rash mind ever conceive the singular idea that 

 the Leaf-cutter might very well have started 

 working in cotton-wool, that the cotton- 

 worker once thought or will one day think of 

 cutting disks out of the leaves of the lilac- and 

 the rose-tree, that the resin-kneader began 



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