My dear Romanes

I have been thinking about Pompilius & its allies.—² Please take the trouble to read on Perforation of the corolla by Bees p. 425 of my Cross Fertilisation to end of Chapter.³ Bees show so much intelligence in these acts, that it seems not improbable to me that the progenitors of Pompilius originally stung caterpillars & spiders &c in any part of their bodies, & then observed by their intelligence that if they stung them in one particular place, as between certain segments on the lower side, their prey was at once paralysed. It does not seem to me at all incredible that this action sh^d then become insttive i.e. memory transmitted from one generation to another. It does not seem necessary to suppose that when Pompilius stung its prey in the ganglion that it intended or knew that the prey would long keep alive. The development of the larvae may have been subsequently modified in relation to their half-dead, instead of wholly dead prey; supposing that the prey was at first quite killed which would have required much stinging. Turn this notion over in your mind, but do not trouble yourself by answering.—⁴

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

N.B. Once on a time a fool said to himself that at an ancient period small soft crabs or other creatures stuck to certain fishes; then struggled violently & in doing so discharged electricity, which annoyed the parasites; so that they often wriggled away. The fish was very glad, & some of its children gradually profited in a higher degree & in various way by discharging more electricity & by not struggling.— The fool who thought thus persuaded another fool to try an eel in Scotland, & lo & behold electricity was discharged when it struggled violently. He then placed in contact with the fish or near it a small medusa or other animal which he cleverly knew was sensitive to electricity, & when the eel struggled violently the little animals in contact showed by their movements that they felt a slight shock.—⁵ Ever afterwards men said that the two fools were not such big fools as they seemed to be.—

Stultus.⁶