The Wonders of Instinct: Chapters in the Psychology of InsectsFabre, Jean-Henri
Science
The Wonders of Instinct: Chapters in the Psychology of Insects
Fabre, Jean-Henri
Insects; Instinct
The number of morsels served for the meal of each larva interests us
more than the quality. In the cells of Eumenes Amedei, I find sometimes
five caterpillars and sometimes ten, which means a difference of a
hundred per cent in the quantity of the food, for the morsels are of
exactly the same size in both cases. Why this unequal supply, which
gives a double portion to one larva and a single portion to another?
The diners have the same appetite: what one nurseling demands a second
must demand, unless we have here a different menu, according to the
sexes. In the perfect stage the males are smaller than the females, are
hardly half as much in weight or volume. The amount of victuals,
therefore, required to bring them to their final development may be
reduced by one-half. In that case, the well-stocked cells belong to
females; the others, more meagrely supplied, belong to males.
But the egg is laid when the provisions are stored; and this egg has a
determined sex, though the most minute examination is not able to
discover the differences which will decide the hatching of a female or
a male. We are therefore needs driven to this strange conclusion: the
mother knows beforehand the sex of the egg which she is about to lay;
and this knowledge allows her to fill the larder according to the
appetite of the future grub. What a strange world, so wholly different
from ours! We fall back upon a special sense to explain the Ammophila's
hunting; what can we fall back upon to account for this intuition of
the future? Can the theory of chances play a part in the hazy problem?
If nothing is logically arranged with a foreseen object, how is this
clear vision of the invisible acquired?
The capsules of Eumenes pomiformis are literally crammed with game. It
is true that the morsels are very small. My notes speak of fourteen
green caterpillars in one cell and sixteen in a second cell. I have no
other information about the integral diet of this Wasp, whom I have
neglected somewhat, preferring to study her cousin, the builder of
rockwork domes. As the two sexes differ in size, although to a lesser
degree than in the case of Eumenes Amedei, I am inclined to think that
those two well-filled cells belonged to females and that the males'
cells must have a less sumptuous table. Not having seen for myself, I
am content to set down this mere suspicion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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