108 



WILD LIFE IN CALIFORNIA 



thority, tells how a wasp, the Polistes carnifex, 

 cut a large caterpillar in two parts that it 

 might convey the game to its nest more 

 easily. He says: "Being at the cime amidst a 

 thick mass of fine-leaved climbing plant, it 

 proceeded, before flying away, to take note of 

 the place where it was leaving the other half. 

 To do this, it hovered in front of it for a 

 few seconds, then took small circles in front 

 of it, then larger ones around the whole plant. 

 I thought it had gone, but it returned again 

 and had another look at the opening down 

 which the other half of the caterpillar lay. 

 When the wasp came back and took the re- 

 maining part of the caterpillar, it did not stop 

 to make any survey of the place but flew direct 

 to its nest." 



The Peckhams commenting on these inci- 

 dents say both of the above writers believe 

 that many of the actions of insects that are as- 

 cribed to instinct are really evidence of the 

 possession of a certain amount of reasoning 

 power. 



Belt also noted in his studies and observa- 

 tion of the work of wasps in building and 

 provisioning their nests that some individuals 

 were much more clever in their operations 

 than others, as must be the case where reason 

 through intellectual power is the directing 

 force instead of instinct alone. Instinct only, 

 was Fabre's hobby and it was his argument 

 that under the same conditions and. in the 

 same occupation they would act exactly alike 

 and after having performed one duty of their 

 life cycle, could not be induced to repeat the 

 act. The observations and records of the au- 

 thorities quoted give numerous facts that are 

 inconsistent with the theory of the French 

 naturalist, and an incident, which I have de- 

 tailed in a previous chapter, that recently came 

 under my own observation also seems to con- 

 tradict his theory. This was the case where 

 the stem of a nest of Polistes had been broken 

 so that the nest remained suspended by only 

 a fibre. As soon as the wasps discovered the 

 damage they immediately proceeded to repair 

 the stem. In a few hours the work was thor- 

 oughly done and the nest was as firmly at- 

 tached to its base as ever. Now if the Polistes 

 were guided by instinct alone they would have 

 possessed no reasoning power to tell them of 

 the damage and danger to their habitation, or 

 inform them what was necessary to avert a 

 disaster. Recognition of the damage implies 

 a certain amount of intelligence and reasoning 

 power. If actuated by instinct alone and 

 possessing no power to reason, how could they 

 know that the nest was in danger of falling 

 and how could they be expected to repair what 

 instinct only impelled or required of them to 

 build once in their lives? As Fabre says in 

 his observation of the work of a mason bee 

 when he attempted to induce it to repair a cell, 

 that having complied with the demands of in- 

 stinct it had done the thing once and could 

 not be made to understand the necessity of 

 repeating the act. 



Fabre in accrediting instinct as the sole 

 impulse guiding the acts of the wasp and 

 bees said that it was a marvelous force and 

 acts under it were unerring, and that in the 



proficiency with which certain wasps used their 

 stings in capturing insects as provender for 

 their young they rivaled the skill and knowl- 

 edge of the best surgeons. They were always 

 unerring in stabbing their victims so as to 

 cause a paralyzed condition and not death, as 

 it was essential that the larvae which were to 

 feed on the helpless insects should have fresh 

 meat. 



The observations of the Peckhams in this 

 country do not altogether agree with the con- 

 clusions of Fabre. They found almost uni- 

 versally in making a great many examinations 

 that some wasps were more clever than others 

 in inflicting the stab, and that some of even 

 the most skillful wasps sometimes caused death 

 instead of paralysis, and in several cases deaths 

 predominated, and moreover that "fresh meat" 

 did not appear essential to the growth and 

 maturity of the larvae, for they found them 

 feeding on dead insects with undiminished 

 appetities. The variation in skill is what 

 might be expected where intellect takes a part 

 with instinct as the guiding force. In saying 

 this it is not with the purpose of disparaging 

 to show that even a great naturalist may pos- 

 sibly have erred in the interpretation of some 

 of the acts of bees and wasps when making 

 studies and searching for testimony to sustain 

 a preconceived theory held in relation to in- 

 stinct and reason in the insect world. 



Thp Peckhams in the records of the years 

 of study and observation devoted to the wasp 

 family, tell many interesting facts of the do- 

 ings of individuals of several species, and next 

 to the story of the Ammophila using the 

 "stone hammer," the facts related about the 

 wasp that occasionally hung its game in the 

 crotch of a plant when necessary to protect it 

 from ants while digging a nest, stand out as 

 some of the strongest bits of evidence that at 

 times at least, certain wasps act with intelli- 

 gence and as if inspired by reason. The wasp 

 credited with the exhibition of so much judg- 

 ment and care is known as Pompilus quin- 

 quenotatus who confines her search and cap- 

 ture to one certain kind of spider, the Epeira 

 strix. After the capture of a spider it is stung 

 which either causes its death or complete 

 paralysis. The Peckhams say: "A suitable 

 place for the nest being found the spider is 

 very prettily taken care of while the work is in 

 progress. A plant, usually a bean or a sorrel, 

 is chosen, and the spider is hung in the crotch 

 of a branching stem, where it will be safe 

 from the depredations of ants. This precau- 

 tion is not always taken. We have many times 

 seen the spider left on the ground, although 

 there were plenty of plants at hand." 



This story points to another fact that in- 

 dividuals of the same specie do not do the 

 same thing in the same way under the same 

 conditions, as must be the case where instinct 

 and not reason is the guildlng force. 



From another very interesting incident, in- 

 dicating rational intellect on the part of a 

 Pompilus Soelestus, a wasp of the Pompilidae 

 family, recorded by the Peckhams, we take 

 the following: 



"It was half-past one wh^n she suddenly 

 appeared near the nest coming backward 



