382 ORDERS OF PTILOTA. 



that of the Polistes licheguana of Brazil, as observed by M. 

 Auguste f1e St. Hilaire, a quantity of cells, full of honey, have 

 been found, of which this distinguished traveller ate a con- 

 siderable quantity without experiencing any inconvenience ; 

 and the same has been observed in respect to the honey found 

 in the nests of Polistes gallica. The larger species of wasps 

 will occasionally attack raw meat in the butchers' shops ; but 

 this is of rare occurrence, and can only be attributed to an 

 occasional diminution of then- ordinary food ; indeed, many 

 nests are too far distant from the habitations of man, for 

 the wasps which inhabit them to have recoui'se to such a 

 kind of food. In the same manner may be explained 

 the interesting instance of supposed instinct exhibited 

 by a wasp, recorded in some of the popular works on 

 Natural History, which had captured a fly which it was 

 unable to fly away with, owing to the wind acting upon 

 the wings of the latter, whereupon it clipped oif these 

 wings and also the legs, and then flew off^ with it to devour 

 it at leism-e. Here it was evident that the wasp had been 

 prevented from obtaining its usual supply of food, and that 

 its instinct had been sharpened by hunger. I was witness, 

 some time ago, of another equally interesting instance of 

 instinct exhibited by the same insect, which had discovered 

 some flies, upon which it wished to make a meal, revelling 

 upon excrement, which it was anxious not to touch with its 

 feet or wings in seizing its prey. It approached, therefore, 

 as near to one of the flies as it could, and then -^dth a swoop, 

 which reminded me of the flight of the hawk, darted upon the 

 fly, and carried it ofi" without soihng itself. The ants, in like 

 manner, although some of them have the instinct to secure 

 in their nests entire colonies of aphides, do not devour them, 

 but merely lap up with their tongues the saccharine fluid 

 which they emit, and which is, in fact, merely vegetable 

 liquid slightly modified during its passage through the body 

 of the aphis. All other species of hymenopterous insects 



