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 be left by the provision of game of different species
and varying sizes. How is it, then, that a host of Bees and Wasps,
of honey-gatherers as well as huntresses, store a larger or smaller
quantity of victuals in their cells according as the nurselings are to
become females or males?

The provisions are stored before the eggs are laid; and these provisions
are measured by the needs of the sex of an egg still inside the
mother's body. If the egg-laying were to precede the rationing, which
occasionally takes place, as with the Odyneri (Cf. "The Hunting Wasps":
chapters 2 and 8.--Translator's Note.), for example, we might imagine
that the gravid mother enquires into the sex of the egg, recognizes it
and stacks victuals accordingly. But, whether destined to 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 obscurities, its visual
discernment would have nothing whereupon to practice. As I have said,
the egg is laid only when the corresponding provisions are stored. The
meal is prepared before the larva which is to eat it has come into the
world. The supply is generously calculated by the needs of the coming
creature; the dining-room is built large or small to contain a giant or
a dwarf still germinating in the ovarian ducts. The mother, therefore,
knows the sex of her egg beforehand.

A strange conclusion, which plays havoc with our current notions! The
logic of the facts leads us to it directly. And yet it seems so absurd
that, before accepting it, we seek to escape the predicament by another
absurdity. 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. The mother, obeying her instincts, would store more