1 66 The Book of Bugs. 



hexagonal cells, mouth downward. When these are half- 

 finished she lays an egg in each and goes on building, 

 gluing an egg in each cell. When nine or a dozen are 

 completed she makes a paper wall so that the nest looks 

 like a gray ball with a hole in the bottom. 



The first eggs hatch out and the grubs with round 

 white heads and little brown points of eyes clutch the 

 walls of their cells by their two tail-feet, all they have. 

 The queen goes a-hunting and catches flies and such 

 for them. As soon as the comb jars and they think 

 mamma has come back, open pop their brown horny 

 jaws. She chews up the flies into pulp and goes from 

 cell to cell, feeding them. As the grub grows it must 

 change its original hold, which was two-thirds of the way 

 down, to a hold nearer the upper and closed end of the 

 cell. It has only those two tail-feet to do it with, though 

 in the egg it had a full set. It is a puzzle to me how it is 

 accomplished. Sometimes it isn't. They say that the 

 mother puts it back, but this only tends to encourage 

 awkwardness, and generally, for the good of the race, it 

 is allowed to lie there till it dies. Later the workers 

 carry it out and throw it away. Once it gets fixed in the 

 closed end of the cell with its head hanging down, it can 

 hang on by ruffling up its sides. When it grows all it is 

 going to, its mouth fills with gum, which turns to silk as 

 it dries. It spins a little cocoon of white silk and the cell 

 is much more heavily capped than the baby bee's, so as 

 to prevent too rapid evaporation of the juices of the 

 body. 



In the sleep that follows the grub loses its pillow shape, 

 takes on a fashionable waist, and its legs bud out, until 

 finally it is a perfect wasp, as white as snow. It grows 

 darker, sheds its last delicate covering, snips its way 

 through the capping of the cell, thrusts out its head, and 



