xxx President' *& Address. [Aug. 28, 



going to decimate her progeny. They are conspicuous enough, these 

 Chrysidae. But let us suppose that the very brilliancy of the livery is 

 the cause of their not being detected ; can the same be said of the 

 large, velvet-clad Anthrax? of the dingy-looking Tachynaria flies, 

 which she evidently sees, since she displaces them in her movements ? 



Bembex does, undoubtedly, prove that she sees the same Tachynaria, 

 and is aware of her presence. She, a destroyer of flies, never thinks 

 of pouncing upon them, and yet she, alone among solitary bees and 

 wasps, attends to the wants of her young until it reaches the pupal 

 stage. She must therefore be credited with a higher intelligence truly, 

 but still it is a very limited one after all. 



Quite equal to the zeal of these Hymenoptera and also to their 

 intelligence are the zeal and intelligence of the dipterous flies, 

 which, like Tachynariae, have acquired the power of laying their eggs 

 at will, and, like Anthrax, have developed in the larva the means of 

 reaching the prey. 



The whole intelligence of these insects has been directed in one 

 groove, and in one groove only. 



Parasites lead a solitary hfe ; they have not the advantage of the 

 community. The parasitic life, which they have slowly been induced 

 to assume, has strengthened, has increased their development in one 

 direction only, viz. : " Safe multiplication of the species." 



This, intensified by heredity, has improved the means of obtaining 

 that result ; but just as, if one limb alone is used at the expense of 

 another, it increases abnormally, while the other decreases or remains 

 stationary, in the same way the intelligence of parasitic Hymenoptera 

 has been directed in a groove in which it has sunk deeper and deeper, 

 so deep in fact, that it cannot rise to the comprehension of other ways, 

 of other channels, of, perhaps, other ideas. 



29th July, 1890. 



