But, where the poet finds but an incitement [[124]]to the delights of sleep, the naturalist beholds a subject for study: all this small folk making holiday on the last flowers of the year will perhaps furnish him with some fresh data. Behold me then on observation duty before the two clumps with their thousands of lilac petals.
The air is absolutely still, the sun blazing, the atmosphere heavy: signs of an approaching storm, but conditions eminently favourable to the work of the Hymenoptera, who seem to foresee to-morrow’s rain and redouble their activity to improve the opportunity. And so the Bees plunder eagerly, while the Eristales fly clumsily from flower to flower. At times, the peaceable multitude, filling its crop with nectar, is disturbed by the sudden invasion of the Wasp, a ravening insect attracted hither by prey, not honey.
Equally ardent in carnage, but very unequal in strength, two species divide the hunting between them: the Common Wasp (Vespa vulgaris), who catches Eristales, and the Hornet (Vespa crabro), who preys on Hive-bees. The methods are the same in either case. Both bandits explore the expanse of flowers with an impetuous flight, going backwards and forwards in a thousand directions, and then make a sudden rush for the coveted prey, which is on [[125]]its guard and flies away, while the kidnapper’s impetus brings her up with a bump against the deserted flower. Then the pursuit continues in the air, as though a Sparrow-hawk were chasing a Lark. But the Bee and the Eristalis, by taking brisk turns, soon baffle the attempts of the Wasp, who resumes her evolutions above the clustering blossoms. At last, sooner or later, some quarry less quick at flight is captured. Forthwith, the Common Wasp drops on to the lawn with her Eristalis; I also instantly lie on the ground, quietly removing with my hands the dead leaves and bits of grass that might interfere with my view; and I witness the following tragedy, if I have taken proper precautions not to scare the huntress.
First, there is a wild struggle in the tangle of the grass between the Wasp and the Eristalis, who is bigger than her assailant. The Fly is unarmed, but powerful; a shrill buzz of her wings tells of her desperate resistance. The Wasp carries a dagger; but she does not understand the methodical use of it, is unacquainted with the vulnerable points so well known to the marauders who need a prey that keeps fresh for long. What her nurselings want is a mess of Flies that moment reduced to pulp; and, so long as this is achieved, the Wasp cares little how the game is killed. The sting therefore [[126]]is used blindly, without any method. We see it pointed indifferently at the victim’s back, sides, head, thorax, or belly, according to the chances of the scuffle. The Hunting Wasp paralysing her victim acts like a surgeon who directs his scalpel with a skilled hand; the Social Wasp killing her prey behaves like a common assassin who stabs at random. For this reason the Eristalis’ resistance is prolonged; and her death is the result of scissor-cuts rather than dagger-thrusts. When the victim is duly garrotted, motionless between its ravisher’s legs, the head falls under a snap of the mandibles; then the wings are cut off at their juncture with the shoulder; the legs follow, severed one by one; lastly, the belly is flung aside, but emptied of the entrails, which the Wasp appears to add to the one favoured portion. This choice morsel is solely the thorax, which is richer in lean meat than the rest of the Eristalis’ body. Without further delay the Wasp flies off with it, carrying it in her legs. On reaching the nest, she will make it into potted Fly and serve it in mouthfuls to the larvæ.
The Hornet who has caught a Bee acts in much the same manner; but, in the case of an assailant of her dimensions, the struggle cannot last long, notwithstanding the victim’s sting. [[127]]The Hornet may prepare her dish on the very flower where the capture was effected, or more often on some twig of an adjacent shrub. The Bee’s crop is first ripped open and the honey that runs out of it lapped up. The prize is thus a twofold one: a drop of honey for the huntress to feast upon and the Bee herself for the larvæ. Sometimes the wings are removed and also the abdomen; but generally the Hornet is satisfied with reducing the Bee to a shapeless mass, which she carries off without disdaining anything. Those parts which have no nutritive value, especially the wings, will be rejected on arriving at the nest. Lastly, she sometimes prepares the mash in the actual hunting-field, that is to say, she crushes the Bee between her mandibles after removing the wings, the legs, and at times the abdomen as well.
Here then, in all its details, is the incident observed by Darwin. A Wasp (Vespa vulgaris) catches a big Fly (Eristalis tenax); she cuts off the victim’s head, wings, abdomen, and legs with her mandibles and keeps only the thorax, which she carries off flying. But here there is not the least breath of wind to explain the carving process; besides, the thing happens in a perfect shelter, in the thick tangle of the grass. The butcher rejects such parts of her [[128]]prey as she considers valueless to her larvæ; and that is all about it.
In short, the heroine of Darwin’s story is certainly a Wasp. Then what becomes of that rational calculation on the part of the insect which, the better to contend with the wind, cuts off its prey’s abdomen, head and wings and keeps only the thorax? It becomes a most simple incident, leading to none of the mighty consequences which the writer seeks to deduce from it: the very trivial incident of a Wasp who begins to carve up her prey on the spot and keeps only the stump, the one part which she considers fit for her larvæ. Far from seeing the least sign of reason in this, I look upon it as a mere act of instinct, one so elementary that it is really not worth expatiating upon.
To disparage man and exalt animals in order to establish a point of contact, followed by a point of union, has been and still is the general tendency of the ‘advanced theories’ in fashion in our day. Ah, how often are these ‘sublime theories,’ that morbid craze of the time, based upon ‘proofs’ which, if subjected to the light of experiment, would lead to as ridiculous results as the learned Erasmus Darwin’s Sphex! [[129]]
[1] The order of insects including Earwigs, Cockroaches, Mantes, Crickets, Locusts and Grasshoppers.—Translator’s Note. [↑]