The Ignorance of Instinct i8i 



legs, while with her front tarsi, which she first 

 puts into her mouth, she washes her eyes. This, 

 so it has always seemed to me, is a sign in 

 Hymenoptera of giving up a job. 



Nevertheless there is no lack of parts by 

 which the Ephippiger might be seized and 

 dragged along as easily as by the antennae and 

 the palpi. There are the six legs, there is the 

 ovipositor : all organs slender enough to be 

 gripped boldly and to serve as hauling-ropes. 

 I agree that the easiest way to effect the storing 

 is to introduce the prey head first, drawn down 

 by the antennae ; but it would enter almost as 

 readily if drawn by a leg, especially one of the 

 front legs, for the orifice is wide and the passage 

 short or sometimes even non-existent. Then 

 how is it that the Sphex did not once try to 

 seize one of the six tarsi or the tip of the ovi- 

 positor, whereas she attempted the impossible, 

 the absurd, in striving to grip, with her much 

 too short mandibles, the huge skull of her prey ? 

 Can it be that the idea did not occur to her ? 

 Then we will try to suggest it. 



I offer her, right under her mandibles, first a 

 leg, next the end of the abdominal rapier. The 

 insect obstinately refuses to bite ; my repeated 

 blandishments lead to nothing. A singular 

 huntress, to be embarrassed by her game, not 

 knowing how to seize it by a leg when she is 



