self was already
a highly-developed descendant and, like its successors, fed its family
on prey. The close similarity in form, in colouring and, above all, in
habits seem to refer the Tachytes to the same origin. This is ample; let
us be satisfied with it. And now please tell me, what did this prototype
of the Sphegidae hunt? Was its diet varied or uniform? If we cannot
decide, let us examine the two cases.

The diet was varied. I heartily congratulate the first born of the
Sphex-wasps. She enjoyed the most favourable conditions for leaving
a prosperous offspring. Accommodating herself to any kind of prey not
disproportionate to her strength, she avoided the dearth of a given
species of game at this or that time and in this or that place; she
always found the wherewithal to endow her family magnificently,
they being, for that matter, fairly indifferent to the nature of the
victuals, provided that these consisted of fresh insect-flesh, as the
tastes of their cousins many times removed prove to this day. This
matriarch of the Sphex clan bore within herself the best chances of
assuring victory to her offspring in that pitiless fight for existence
which eliminates the weakly and incapable and allows none but the strong
and industrious to survive; she possessed an aptitude of great value
which atavism could not fail to hand down and which her descendants, who
are greatly interested in preserving this magnificent inheritance, must
have permanently adopted and even accentuated from one generation to the
next, from one branch, one offshoot, to another.

Instead of this unscrupulously omnivorous race, levying booty upon every
kind of game, to its very great advantage, what do we see to-day? Each
Sphex is stupidly limited to an unvarying diet; she hunts only one kind
of prey, though her larva accepts them all. One will have nothing but
the Ephippiger and must have a female at that; another will have nothing
but the Cricket. This one hunts the Locust and nothing else; that one
the Mantis and the Empusa. Yet another is addicted to the Grey Worm and
another to the Looper.

Fools! How great was your mistake in allowing the wise eclecticism
of your ancestress, whose relics now repose in the hard mud of some
lacustrian stratum, to become obsolete! How much better would things
be for you and yours! Abundance is assured; painful and often fruitless
searches are avoided; the larder is crammed without being subject to the
accidents of t