CLASS HEXAPODA. 



81 



FIG. 139. 



Sphex ic/i neu mon' e a. Digger Wasp. 



FIG. 140. 



The Digging Wasps connect the Ants with the Wasps 



proper. Many dig burrows in 



the ground or in hard wood, in 



which they deposit their eggs, 



leaving food on which the young 



may feed. Often other insects 



are paralyzed by their sting, and 



in this helpless condition are 



stored away, to await the hunger 



of the developing Wasp. Each 



species uses different food. 



The Wasps, proper, have a peculiar life. The female, 

 which, hidden away in some crevice, 

 has endured the winter, comes out in 

 the spring and lays her eggs in a series 

 of small cells, which she has made out 

 of true paper, made by the mixture of 

 her saliva with bits of vegetable tissue. 

 The eggs, on hatching, produce worm- 

 like larvae, which the queen carefully feeds until they 



have undergone their transformation, and become able 



as workers to assist her in caring for her increasing 



family, and in enlarging their dwelling. In the fall, 



males and females are developed, but only the latter 



survive the winter. 



The Bumble, or Humble, Bee, that 



has passed the winter, in spring works 



for herself a small cavity, often in 



some deserted mouse or bird's nest. 



In this cavity, with a mass of pollen, gathered from the 



Vfs'pa mac u la' ta. 

 Common Wasp, or Hornet. 





Bumble-bee. 



of the workers become inactive and are fed by their associates until their bodies 

 become frightfully distended. Thus they remain living storehouses until a time 

 of famine, when they give back their "provisions" to the starving members of 

 the colony. 



