The New York herald., 1922-10-01
Studying the Ways of Insects
Apparent Displays of Intelligence and Reasoning by
Wasps, Moths and Bugs
From an article By D. Arthur Thomson IN the Neo Statesman


There is an American wasp that Il
fond of black waterside spider seyera
times larger than itself--or. moro &C
curately. herself. The booty is para.
lyzed, but it is too heavy to fly will
and the vegetation IL too thick to allow
OF land transport by haulage. "Out ont,
the surface Of the placid stream tn,
wasp drags the huge limp black carcass
of the spider and. mounting into the air
with her engines going and her wings
steadily buzzing, she sails away across
the water trailing the spider and leay-
ing a wake that Is miniature of that
OF passing steamship" She makes
straight for the burrow where her eggs
bank and drags it into the hole to form
part Of the provision for her young ones.
1t Is this kind OF almost incredible be-
hayior that fills us with amazement /,
seems to belong to different order of
things from ours. As Maeterlinck said
'"The insect brings with it something
that does not seem to belong to the GUS
toms. the morale. the psychology OF our
globe: we cannot grasp the idea that 1t
is thought Of that nature Of which we
flatter ourselves that we are the favor
lite children" But while we may never
be able to understand ants, bees and
wasps just because we are as charac-
teristically creatures of intelligence as
they Of instinct, It should be possible to
get nearer them than mere wonder
brings us. and a great step towards get
ting things into order has been taken
by Professor f. l.. Bouvier in his ''Psy-
chic Life Of Insects" recently translated
by DR.. l.. o. Howard.
When the caterpillars Of the brown
tail moth are Matched from the eggs the
first khing they do is to climb up the
twigs where they find themselves and
this brings them to the young leaves
which they require for food. Similarly
the maggots of the bluebottle penetrate
into the meat: the mature queens and
drones In the beehive seek the light OF
day: ants retreat into their nests when
1t is too hot or too cold outside and
make straight tracks away from essence
of pennyroyal; the male silk moth Is at
tracted to the fragrance of the female |;
some aquatic insects always swim
against the stream and some flies al
ways make their way against the wind.
Now these activities are tropisms, in
grained constitutional obligations, in
most cases adaptive. An asymmetry of
stimulus proyoles asymmetry of muscu-
lar activity; this automatically results
in movements which restore symmetry
OF stimulus. Whatever may have been
the case during the establishment of the
tropism it is eventually an ingrained
obligation requiring no will or control
and without any verifable psychic side.
1t should be noted, however. that one
tropism may influence or counteract an
other and that tropism may change in
character with the age and physiological
condition OF the animal
Roubaud has described interesting
house worms from Africa. the maggots
OF a fly, which burrow during the day
in the earthen floor OF huts, but come
up at night and gorge themselves on the
blood of sleepers. A periodlcity has
been established in the body of these
insects and Roubaud was able to prove
that they may be experimentally in
duced to come up by day or by night
according as they are treated.
This leads US on to rhythms ingrained
in the constitution. Some moths are ac-
tive by day and others by night. just as
some flowers open by day and others by
night. Some walking stick insects are
absolutely motionless during the day but
begin to explore whenever night falls
There are many internal vital rhythms
which have been punctuated in refer
ence to external periodicities; an or :
ganic memory is established which
eventually provokes activities independ-
emily of the original stimuli. This is
not as yet psychism but It is on the
way.
The bedbug hides from the light this
is it's tropism. IL it be accidentally ex-
posed to the light it Immediately turns
$50 degrees; this is called its
sensitiveness. 1t is very diff
cult TO make bedbug which is on black
paper pass over onto piece OF while
paper. When the mourning cloak but
terfiy is resting in the sunshine 1t turns
It's back to the light; when it is walk
ing or flying 1t keeps its face the other
way. If a shadow be thrown on 1t
when It Is walking 1t stops, momentarily
closes its wings and then quickly takes
flight This is differential sensitiveness