WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



When a cell is sealed, the mother wasp ceases to take 

 an interest in it, but she has done all that is necessary. 

 In two or three days the egg hatches, after which the 

 larva spends ten or fifteen days in eating, and then 

 spins its cocoon. Here it remains, perhaps for only a 

 few weeks, for there are two or three generations in 

 one season, or perhaps through the long months of 

 winter. 



Fabre gives a most entertaining account of a French 

 species of Pelopaeus which nests in the wide-mouthed 

 chimneys of the peasant. Undisturbed by the steam 

 of washing day or the bustle of dinner-getting, the wasp 

 enters the open door, passes unconcerned among the 

 human inhabitants, and makes her cells against the 

 smoky bricks, out of reach of the flames. This species 

 kills her prey at the moment of capture, by which act 

 she falls in the estimation of Fabre, who respects a 

 wasp in proportion to the nicety with which she delivers 

 her sting. He says, however, that at least she follows 

 a logical method in turning to account these spiders, 

 menaced with early decay. In the first place the prey is 

 multiplied in each cell. The piece actually attacked by 

 the larva is soon a disorganized mass, likely to decay 

 speedily ; but it is small and is consumed before decom- 

 position can advance, for when a larva once attacks a 



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