More Hunting Wasps

ything is accepted if only they make a little noise. Let us discard this bad habit and admit that really, if we go to the bottom of things, we know nothing about anything. Scientifically spea

thing might well be th

y remarkable fact, at the time when our mind, refusing to be satisfied with sweeping generalities, which our indolence too readily makes shift with, seeks to enter as far as possible into the secret of the details, so cur

have the game which I first saw her pursuing. But, though the nature of the victuals is constant, the quantity is not so. In this respect the difference is so great that he would need to be a very superficial observer who shoul

es and Others": chapter 9.-Translator's Note.), established in some vein of soft sandstone, places three Praying Mantes in one cell and five in another. Of the caskets fashioned by Amedeus' Eumenes (Cf. "The Mason-wasps": chapter 1.-Translator's Note.) out of clay and bits of stone, the more richly endowed contain ten small caterpillars, the more poorly furnished five. The Sand Cerceris (Cf. "The Hunting Wasps": cha

kes her choice and swoops down. The trick is done: the poor worker, with her tongue lolling from her mouth in the death-struggle, is carried through the air to the underground den, which is often a very long way from the spot of the capture. The trickling of earthy refuse, on the ba

hy substance and reduced to the tough outer skin, are easily counted. If the larva has chewed these overmuch, the wings at least are left; these are sapless organs which the Philanthus absolutely scorns. They are likewise spared by moisture, putrefaction and time, so much so that it is no more difficult to take an inventory of a cell several years old than one of a recent cell. The essential thing is not to overlook any of these tiny relics while placing them in the paper bag, amid the thousa

hundred and thirty-six cells, whic

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any inventory of the rations becomes impossible. I therefore have recourse to the cells which still contain the egg or the very young larva and, above all, to those whose provisions have been invaded by a tiny parasitic Gnat

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nd some which are two-fifths, averaging three quarters. I see pretty plainly that their number increases in proportion as their size diminishes, as though the Tachytes were seeking to make up for the smallness of the game by increasing the amount; none the less I find it quite impos

nis (Cf. "Bramble-bees and Others": passim; and, in particular, chapters 3 to 5.-Translator's Note.)) feed their larvae on a heap of pollen-dust moistened in the middle with a very little disgorged honey. One of these heaps may be three or four times the size of some other in the same group of cells. If I detach from its pebble the nest of the Mason-be

male and the female differ not only in certain details of internal or external structure-a point of view which doe

es of substance, I should need delicate balances, capable of weighing down to a milligramme. My clumsy villager's scales, on which potatoes may be weighed to within a kilogramme or so, do not permit of this precision. I must therefore rely on the evidence o

ide, in the Cerceres, the Stizi, the Spheges, the Chalicodomae and many more. It is therefore the rule that the male is smaller than the female. There are of course some exceptions, though

will be joined together to form honey-pots, works up the resin gathered in drops from the wounds in the pine-trees to build ceilings in the empty spiral of a Snail-shell, hunts the prey, paralyses it and drags it indoors, gathers the pollen-dust, prepares the honey in her crop, stores and mixes t

alent in the aggregate provisions. Though so slight a creature as the male Philanthus finds a ration of two Bees sufficient for his needs, the female, twice or thrice as bulky, will consume three to six at least. If the male Tachytes requires three Mantes, h

of various Digger-wasps, notably of the Bee-eating Philanthus, who has just furnished us with an inventory of provisions. Surrounding these cocoons and thrust against the wall of the cell were the remnants of the victuals-wings, corselets, heads, wing-cases-a count of which enabled me to determine how many head of game had been provided for the larva, now enclosed in its silken abode. I thus obtained the c

s. From the Tachytes-cocoons with double or treble that ration I obtained females. When fed upon four or five Nut-weevils, the Sand Cerceris was a male; when fed upon eight o

and not more than two when it is to become a male? Here the various head of game are identical in size, in flavour, in nutritive properties. The food-value is precisely in proportion to the number of items supplied, a helpful detail which eliminates the uncertainties wherein we might

become a male or a female, the egg is always the same; the differences-and I have no doubt that there are differences-are in the domain of the infinitely subtle, the mysterious, imperceptible even to the most practised embryogenist. What can a poor insect see-in the absolute darkness of its burrow, moreover-where science armed with optical instruments has not yet succeeded in seeing anything? And besides, even were it more discerning than we are in these genetic obscurit

ity. We wonder whether the quantity of food may not decide the fate of the egg, originally sexless. Given more food and more room, the egg would become a female; given less food and less room, it would become a male. Th

increasing the size of the cell, by modifying the quality and quantity of the food, that the population of a hive transforms a worker larva into a female or royal larva? It is true that the sex remains the same, since the workers are only incompletely developed fe

wish for. When the reed is split lengthwise, the cells come into view, together with their provisions, the egg lying on the paste, or even the budding larva. Observations multiplied ad nauseam have taught me where to find the males and where the females in this apiary. The males occupy t

hat is to say, some cells remain untouched, with their provisions as I found them, both in the part which is abundantly provided and in that which is more meagrely rationed. The two halves of the reed are

ich I added has not completely disappeared, far from it: the larva has had more than it needed for its evolution as a male; and, being unable to consume the whole of its copious provisions, it has spun its

ng to satisfy their appetite and having eaten the last grain of pollen, have, before dying, done their best with their poor little drop of silk. Those cocoons which correspond with the smallest allowance of food contain only a dead and shrivelled larva; others, in whose case the provisions were less markedly de

ng the delicate natural conditions. To make short work of all objections, I cannot do better than have recourse to facts in which the experimenter's hand has not intervened. The parasites will supply us with these facts; they will show us how alien the quantity and

the regulation point, it spins its cocoon. What will emerge from this? If the reader expects to see any modifications, caused by a diet which the species, left to itself, had never effected, let him be undeceived and that quickly. The Ammophila fed on Spiders is precisely the same as the Ammophila fed on caterpillars

hese differences, at first imperceptible, might become accentuated until they grew into distinct specific characters; the habits and instincts might also change; and in the end the caterpillar-huntress might become a Spider-huntress, with a shape of her own. A species would b

d, just to try to find her again and induce her to entrust you with her eggs, which you would rear in the refectory, to increase the taste for Spiders from generation to generation! Merely to dream of it were madness. Shall we, in our helplessness, adm

ost of the rest. There are some-look at certain of the Oil-beetles-exposed to so many chances of destruction that, to save one, they are obliged to procreate a thousand. They seldom enjoy a free meal. Some stray into the houses of hosts whose victuals do not suit them; others

error on the parasite's part. The nest of the Chalicodoma, the hemisphere of mortar on its pebble, is what she is looking for, to confide her eggs to it. But the nest is now occupied by a stranger, by the Osmia, a circumstance unknown to the Dioxys, who comes stealing up to lay her egg in the mother's absence. The dome is familiar to her. She could not know it better if she had built it herself. Here she was born; here is what her family wants.

food: a little loaf of pollen and honey, hardly the size of an average pea. Such a ration is insufficient for the Dioxys. I have described her as a waster of food when her larva is established, according to custom, in the cell of the Mason-bee.

alf its ordinary dimensions, which means one-eighth of its normal bulk. To see it thus diminished, we are surprised at its tenacious vitality, which enables it to reach the adult form in spite of the extreme deficiency of food. Meanwhile, this adult is still the Dioxys; there is no chang

onged Osmia, a denizen of the bramble, and of the Golden Osmia, an occupant of empty Snail-shells, strays into the house of the Tiny Osmia (O. parvula (This bee makes her

ius bestows upon her; when she comes from the Chalicodoma of the Sheds, she deserves no more than the name of L. grandis, which is all that Klug grants her. With a smaller ration "the giant" is to some degree diminished and becomes no more than "the large." When she comes from the Chalicodoma of the Shrubs, she is smaller still; and, if so

smia, especially the female cocoons, she attains the greatest development that I know of. When she issues from the cocoons of the Blue Osmia (O. cyanea, KIRB.), she is

her normal size, the size in which she usually figures in the collections. A like prosperity awaits her when she usurps the provisions of Megachile sericans. (For this Bee, the Silky Leaf-cutter, cf. "Bramble-bees and Others": chapter 8.-Translator's Note.) But the imprudent creature sometimes allows itself to be carried away to the meagre table of the smallest of our Anthidi

ensions fall to a half, a third, a quarter of the regular dimensions. Among these dwarfs, these misbegotten ones, these victims of atrophy, there are females as well as males; and their smallness by no means cools their amorous ardour. These needy creatures, I repeat, have a hard life o

lue Osmia, Anthrax sinuata, whether of handsome proportions or a dwarf, is still Anthrax sinuata; fed upon the allowance of the Anthidium of the empty Snail-shells, the Anthidium of the brambles, the Megachile or doubtless many others, the Burnt Zonitis is st

ovisions in proportion to the needs of the egg about to be laid knows beforehand what the sex of this egg will be. Perhaps the reality is even more paradoxical still. I shall return to the subject after discussing the Osmiae, who are very weighty witnesses in this grave