200 5 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST, 
will, if females, repeat essentially the same performance 
without ever secing such remarkable processes performed. 
Whether a consciousness of what is being done or an in- 
telligence is being brought to bear on its doing; whether 
we may attribute to the wasp a psychical state, with its 
attributes of cognisance, reason, or emotion, are questions 
which are still debated. ‘he consensus of opinion, how- 
ever, is distinctly against any such interpretation of the 
behaviour of the solitary wasps as being due to such 
anthropomorphic attributes as reason, consciousness, and 
emotion. The fixity of the characteristics of wasp he- 
haviour, combined with the fact that each female is, from, 
the beginning, able to carry through the complex train of 
actions without teaching, experience, or opportunity for 
imitation, practically proves all this seeming marvel of 
reasoned care for the future young to be an inherited 
instinct, incapable of modification. except by the slow 
process of selection through successive generations. 
Nevertheless, the great variety in the habits of the 
species, the extreme industry, skill, and seif-denial dis- 
played in carrying out their labours, renders the solitary 
yasp one o: the most interesting groups of the animal 
kingdom. 
NOTES ON THE COCOONS OF AUSTRALIAN 
MOTHS. 
(By Miss Gladys IH. Froggatt.) 
During the work at the Insect House at Taronga 
Park many caterpillars were brought to, or collected by 
me, and placed in the cases provided. A few were lost 
on account of their having been infested with parasites; 
but most of them have attained their final stage of growth: 
a few are still in a chrysalis state. Im the cases here are 
some cocoons, pupae, and perfect moths. The cocoons 
show several ways in which various moths protect them- 
selves during the weeks of their utter helplessness, viz., 
the pupal stage. 
A caterpillar has varied ways of protecting itself— 
spines, a gland of offensive fiuid to eject at an approach- 
