THE CYCLE OF LIFE 425 



task for many days, we are undoubtedly face to face with 

 parental care, and we are surprised that it should he pater- 

 nal. Two suggestions may be offered :■ — (1 ) that just as 

 maternal care, in certain of its expressions, may be thought 

 of as a sort of prolongation of viviparity, so paternal care 

 may be organically associated with sex-instincts ; and 

 (2) that just as we find a female reindeer always with 

 antlers and the female Red-necked Phalarope with mascu- 

 Une colouring and ways, so parental instincts which usually 

 develop only in the females may, to suit particular needs, 

 be grafted on to the males. 



There is not much parental care among Gasteropods, 

 but there are often very remarkable egg-cases in which the 

 early stages of development are passed. We may refer in 

 illustration to the American Shpper Limpet {Crepidula 

 fornicata), which has spread rapidly since 1880 on British 

 oyster grounds. It takes special care of its spawn, as 

 Mr. Orton has told us. 



' It constructs about fifty to sixty membranous bags, 

 into each of which it passes about two hundred and fifty 

 eggs, and as the bags are made and filled with eggs, they 

 are closed and fastened together by short cords. These 

 cords are finally all stuck on to the surface on which the 

 slipper-limpet happens to be sitting, so that when by taking 

 away the spawning individual the spawn is uncovered, it 

 looks like a bundle of balloons, each containing a number 

 of eggs '. 



Fabre has described in his inimitable manner the be- 

 haviour of a Hymenopterous insect, the Bee-hunter 

 (Philanthus apivorus), which pursues the hive-bee. It 

 always stings the bee on a minute soft patch in the 

 throat, which leads the sting into the cervical ganglia, 



