obably the only information that the insensible implement can
supply. The drill boring through the rock cannot tell the miner anything
about the contents of the cavern which it has entered; and the case must
be the same with the rigid filament of the Leucopses.

Now that the thread has reached its goal, what does the cell contain?
Mildewed honey, dust and rubbish, a shrivelled larva, or a larva in good
condition? Above all, does it already contain an egg? This last question
calls for a definite answer, but as a matter of fact it is impossible
for the insect to learn anything from a horse-hair on that most delicate
matter, the presence or absence of an egg, a mere atom of a thing, in
that vast apartment. Even admitting some sense of touch at the end
of the drill, one insuperable difficulty would always remain: that of
finding the exact spot where the tiny speck lies in those spacious and
mysterious regions. I go so far as to believe that the ovipositor tells
the insect nothing, or at any rate very little, of the inside of the
cell, whether propitious or not to the development of the germ. Perhaps
each thrust of the instrument, provided that it meets with no resistance
from solid matter, lays the egg, to whose lot there falls at one time
good, wholesome food, at another mere refuse.

These anomalies call for more conclusive proofs than the rough
deductions drawn from the nature of the horny ovipositor. We must
ascertain in a direct fashion whether the cell into which the auger has
been driven several times over actually contains several occupants in
addition to the larva of the Mason-bee. When the Leucopses had finished
their borings, I waited a few days longer so as to give the young grubs
time to develop a little, which would make my examination easier. I then
moved the tiles to the table in my study, in order to investigate their
secrets with the most scrupulous care. And here such a disappointment
as I have rarely known awaited me. The cells which I had seen, actually
seen, with my own eyes, pierced by the probe two or three or even four
times, contained but one Leucopsis-grub, one alone, eating away at its
Chalicodoma. Others, which had also been repeatedly probed, contained
spoilt remnants, but never a Leucopsis. O holy patience, give me the
courage to begin again! Dispel the darkness and deliver me from doubt!

I begin again. The Leucopsis-grub is familiar to me; I can recognize
it, without the possibility of a mi