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Updated: May 26, 2025
To argue nebulously upon dubious premises likes me no better. I observe, I experiment and I let the facts speak for themselves. We have just heard these facts. Let each now decide for himself whether instinct is an innate faculty or an acquired habit. The Scolia's feeding-period lasts, on the average, for a dozen days or so.
The ample joint must be consumed with prudent skill: this part must be eaten before that and, after that, some other portion, always according to method, until the time approaches for the last bites. This marks the end of life for the Cetonia, but it also marks the end of the Scolia's feasting.
Now that all this is in order, let us proceed to record events. The Cetonia-larvae which I find with a Scolia's egg upon their ventral surface are distributed in the mould at random, without special cavities, without any sign of some sort of structure. They are smothered in the mould, just as are the larvae which have not been injured by the Wasp.
Of these two conditions the Scoliae fulfilled one, with their regular quarry, the tender Cetonia-, Oryctes-or Anoxia-larva, according to the Scolia's species. Did they fulfil the second? I was convinced beforehand that they did.
If direct observation did not already to some degree confirm it, a mere examination of the half-eaten larva would do so in the most positive fashion. The Cetonia-larva is at first a plump grub. Drained by the Scolia's tooth, it gradually becomes limp and wrinkled. In a few days' time it resembles a shrivelled bit of bacon-fat and then a bag whose two sides have fallen in.
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