by Theodore Dalrymple (February 2016)
I was in bed the other night reading Chekhov, my wife asleep beside me, when a specimen of Haematopota pluvialis flew into the interior of my bedside lampshade and started to clatter about in it before settling down on the lamp-stand. I looked at this creature both fascinated and horrified: for Haematopota pluvialis is the common horsefly, the female of the species being a bloodsucker, usually of horses and cows but sometimes of men. more>>>
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2 Responses
The intelligence of the nests of wasps, ants, bees and such is well researched and documented. One hornet might not be very smart, but the nest or hive-mind does quite extraordinary things. A fly and a hornet’s nest are not really comparable.
E.O. Wilson famously remarked concerning Marxism: “Wonderful theory; wrong species.”
Thought provoking piece, especially to someone with a lifelong obsession with the nature of morality. (Aside: the sentence “They had encountered a situation that they could not possible have encountered before to which they adapted with what seemed like flexibility.” has a typo. “possible.”)