WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



line to a nest which had been so carefully covered over 

 that every trace of its existence was obliterated ? 



To say that she is a creature of instinct, however, is 

 not quite fair to her ladyship's intelligence, as a better 

 acquaintance with her would prove. In reading much 

 popular natural history one might suppose that the in- 

 sects seen flying about on a summer's day were a part of 

 some great throng which is ever moving onward, those 

 that are here to-day being replaced by a new set on the 

 morrow. Except during certain seasons the exact op- 

 posite of this is true. The flying things about us abide 

 in the same locality and are the inhabitants of a fairly 

 restricted area. The garden in which we worked was, 

 to a large extent, the home of a limited number of cer- 

 tain species of wasps that had resided there from birth, 

 or having found the place accidentally, had settled there 

 permanently. To make this matter clear let us suppose 

 the case of an individual of A. urnaria. In June she 

 spent her time in sipping nectar from the onion flowers 

 or from the sorrel that grew on the border of the garden. 

 In July came the days of her courtship and honey- 

 moon, and these too were passed in going from flower to 

 flower, from one part of the garden to another. Many a 

 day we have followed her when she flew from blossom 

 to blossom along a row of bean plants, turning, when 



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