148 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



79 



Here we behold the active intervention of a superior, 

 though perhaps imprudent, v^^ill, which offers irresistible 

 obstruction to the intelligent will of a life. In the insect 

 world such interventions are comparatively frequent, and 

 much can be gained from their study ; for this world being 

 more densely peopled and more complex than others, certain 

 special desires of nature are often more palpably revealed to 

 us there ; and she may even at times be detected in the midst 

 of experiments we might almost be warranted in regarding 

 as incomplete. She has one great and general desire, for in- 

 stance, that she displays on all sides — the amelioration of each 

 species through the triumph of the stronger. This struggle, 

 as a rule, is most carefully organised. The hecatomb of the 

 weak is enormous, but that matters little so long as the 

 victors' reward be effectual and certain. But there are cases 

 when one might almost imagine that nature had not had 

 time to disentangle her combinations ; cases where reward is 

 impossible, and the fate of the victor no less disastrous than 

 that of the vanquished. And of such, selecting an instance 

 that will not take us too far from our bees, I know of no 

 case more striking than that of the " triongulins " of the 

 Sitaris colletes. And it will be seen that, in many details, 

 this story is less foreign to the history of man than might 

 perhaps be imagined. 



These triongulins are the primary larvae of a parasite 

 proper to a wild, obtuse-tongued, solitary bee, the Colletes, 

 which builds its nest in subterranean galleries. It is their 



