Chance and certainty

In a comment to the Spanish version of a previous post of mine, JL advised me to read the book entitled Chance and Certainty, by Georges Salet, who wrote it to prove that the origin of life and its subsequent evolution are impossible, if we apply the calculus of probabilities. In addition, he challenged me to refute at least one of the arguments proposed by the book, in the following words:

The work contains hundreds of arguments and demonstrations; if you, or anyone else whose help you ask, are able to refute a single argument or demonstration, I will readily admit that life can indeed arise spontaneously.

Salet's book is out of print and very hard to come by. I am grateful to another comment contributor, who provided me with the opportunity to read this book. I can therefore accept JL's challenge.

The case of the hunting hymenoptera

Jean-Henri Fabre

In 1879, the French entomologist J. H. Fabre studied many species of hymenoptera (solitary wasps and bees) that hunt other insects as food for their larvae. This is the reason for their name (hunting hymenoptera, also called -improperly- parasite hymenoptera). Before laying the eggs, the hymenoptera paralyze the prey by injecting with their sting a drop of poison in every nerve ganglion in the un-centralized nervous system of the prey. In some species, such as Ammophila hirsuta, which hunts caterpillars, the number of ganglions may be large (up to twelve, one per segment in the caterpillar). The hunter seems to know where exactly its prey must be stabbed with the sting.

Once the prey has been paralyzed and the egg laid, the minute larva of the hymenopter digs inside the prey and starts devouring it, showing an apparent innate knowledge of the prey anatomy: it starts feeding on the parts less necessary for life, leaving the vital organs to the last. In this way, the prey does not die and rot, which would make it improper as food and lead to the death of the predator.

Ammophila sabulosa carrying a hunted caterpillar