368 The Htmthig Wasps 



this operation, both as regards herself, in being 

 released from a struggle not unattended with 

 danger, and as regards her larva, thus supphed 

 with fresh, living and yet harmless victuals ; 

 and consequently to have endowed her off- 

 spring, by heredity, with a natural tendency to 

 repeat the advantageous device. The maternal 

 legacy did not benefit all the descendants 

 equally : some were poor hands at the newborn 

 art of the stiletto ; others were adepts. Then 

 came the stniggle for existence, the hateful 

 v(B victis ! The weak went under, the strong 

 flourished ; and, as age succeeded age, selection 

 by vital competition changed the fleeting 

 impression of the start into a deep-rooted, 

 ineffaceable impression, exemplified in the 

 masterly instinct which we admire in the Wasp 

 to-day. 



Well, I avow, in all sincerity, this is asking a 

 little too much of chance. When the Ammo- 

 phila first found herself in the presence of her 

 caterpillar, there was nothing, you would have 

 it, to guide the sting. The choice was made 

 at random. The pricks were directed at the 

 upper surface of the captured prey, at the 

 lower surface, at the sides, the front and the 

 back indiscriminately, according to the fortunes 

 of a close struggle. The Hive-bee and the 

 Social Wasp sting those points which they are 



