Abstract
To those surveying the boundary between instinct and reason there is no more fruitful field than the fossorial wasps, with which this book is chiefly concerned. The greater part of Mr. and Mrs. Rau's illuminating volume is descriptive of the actions of individuals; but the last chapter is an impartial judicial summary, from which we extract the following items:—(1) There are very definite and ironclad instincts. (2) Despite these instincts, which are constant in each species, there is much variation in the behaviour of the individuals. (3) There is a display of the expression of emotions. (4) There is much aptitude for learning, display of memory, profiting by experience, and what seems to us rational conduct. No reader of these pages can deny that these conclusions are abundantly justified by the facts narrated.
Wasp Studies Afield.
By P. Rau Nellie Rau. Pp. xv + 372. (Princeton: University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1918.) Price 8s. 6d. net.
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L., O. Wasp Studies A field . Nature 106, 210 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/106210b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/106210b0