366 The Hunting IVasps 



desnucador's descendants would return to the 

 primitive state of ignorance. Heredity does not 

 hand down the art of killing by severing the 

 spinal marrow : no man is born a cattle-slayer 

 by the desnucador's method. 



Now here is the Ammophila, a slayer of 

 caterpillars by a far more cunning method. 

 Where are the professors of the art of stinging ? 

 There are not any. When the Wasp rends her 

 cocoon and issues from underground, her pre- 

 decessors have long ceased to live ; she herself 

 will perish without seeing her successors. Once 

 the larder is stocked and the egg laid, all con- 

 nection with the offspring ends ; this year's 

 perfect insect dies while next year's insect, still 

 in the larval stage, slumbers below ground in 

 its silken cot. Absolutely nothing, therefore, 

 is transmitted by practical illustration. The 

 Ammophila is born a finished desnucador even 

 as we are born feeders at our mother's breast. 

 The nurseling uses its suction-pump, the Am- 

 mophila her dart, without ever being taught ; 

 and both are past masters of the difficult art 

 from the first attempt. There we have instinct, 

 the unconscious impulse that forms an essential 

 part of the conditions of life and is handed 

 down by heredity in the same way as the 

 rhythmic action of the heart and lungs. 



Let us try, if possible, to trace the Ammo- 



