216 The Ottawa Naturalist. [February 



but this food must be considered as exceptional. The young 

 are probably fed entirely upon animal matter. As a typical 

 example of wasps, there is no better than the large black and 

 white species so common here, which builds the large oval 

 paper nests which may be often seen hanging to trees, shrubs 

 and sheds, and which are generally spoken of in this country 

 under the name of "Hornets." The true Hornet, however, 

 is a very large and exceedingly venomous tawny species found 

 in Europe, and which, strange to say, has in some way been 

 imported into the State of New Jersey, where Prof. J. B. 

 Smith tells me that in some places it is not uncommon. Even 

 in the case of wasps which are useful insects which destroy many 

 injurious species, the sting is not produced on all occasions 

 and without provocation. Unless molested or when their 

 nests are interfered with, our wasps and, even the formidable 

 European hornet, will seldom sting. It is claimed by one of our 

 members that even when by accident he had broken down 

 the nest of a colony of wasps, by standing perfectly still until 

 the insects had settled down, and then moving away very 

 quietly, he has escaped without a single sting. It must be 

 acknowledged, however, that it requires a good deal of coolness 

 and pluck to carry out such a programme. The Social wasps 

 live in colonies similar in many ways to those of the honey bee, 

 consisting of males, females and workers. The winter, however, 

 is passed by the queens or impregnated females only, all the 

 males and workers dying before winter. In the spring each 

 female starts a new nest, and all of the first young produced 

 are workers, who soon build up a new colony. Perfect males 

 and females appear towards winter. Wasps, as a class of 

 insects, are divided into first, the Tme Wasps which have the 

 fore wings folded lengthwise when not in use. Here we find 

 not only the large black and white wasp mentioned, but also 

 the Yellow-jackets, which are social in habit, and a large 

 number of solitary wasps, in which only males and females are 

 developed; and secondly, the Diggers, which are always 

 solitary, including the Carpenter, Mining, Digging and Mason 

 wasps. 



All bees belong to a super-family known as the Apoidea, 

 in which we find social or solitarv species with the tongue long 

 or short, and the hind legs or the under side of their bodies 

 furnished with brushes for carrying pollen. Bees of all kinds 

 are very beneficial from the good work they do in cross-fertiliz- 

 ing the flowers of fruit and other trees while visiting them to 

 gather nectar or pollen. The two most conspicuous divisions 

 of thebees are the Honey Bees and the Bumble Bees. These 

 latter are social in their habits in a similar wav to the Wasps, 



