Backyard Biology  Nature stories from my backyard and beyond
Nature Activities  Which Way Home?  Monday, Ocober 3, 2011
Instinct. It is an amazing trait, isn’t it? Think of all the
happenings in nature that we attribute to instinct. Here are jut
a few that quickly come to mind:  The seventeen year cicada has
spent its entire live underground. Suddenly it gets the urge to
climb above ground, change into and adult and search for a mate.
How does it know where above ground is, or even that there is an
above ground? It has never been there or seen it? Instinct.  The
monarch butterfly that was born here in New England decides it
is time to head south to a specific valley in central Mexico.
Why does it decide that Mexico is the place to be? How does it
find its way? Instinct.  Mud dauber wasps are solitary wasps.
The young wasps never meet their parents, never hang out with
other wasps, never are shown what to hunt and how to hunt. Yet,
they are able to sting spiders in just the right spots to
paralyze without ki