CHAPTER IX 



THE ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS: HYMEN OPTERA 



For so work the honey-bees, 

 Creatures that by a rule in nature teach 

 The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 



Shakespeare, King Henry V 



Social Wasps. The common brown wasps {Polis'tes, Fig. 

 53) are interesting on account of their communal life in 

 nests of paper made from wood pulp. The mouth parts are 

 fitted both for biting hard substances and also for lapping 

 the fluids of plants. The mandibles are much the same as in 

 such biting insects as the grasshoppers; the maxilla? are 

 elongate, sharp-pointed, lance-like organs, and the labium 

 is a flexible, tongue-like structure covered with hairs, to 

 which sweets adhere. There are four membranous, transpar- 

 ent wings, with few veins. The female is provided with a 

 formidable sting, — an important means of defense, — which 

 is in origin a modified ovipositor. 



Early in the spring a female Polistes, which has wintered 

 in a crevice, begins the construction of a nest in some suit- 

 able place, either on the under side of a roof, especially in 

 deserted houses or barns, or on the. ground beneath a stone. 

 If there are fences or barns in the region, she will very likely 

 obtain a supply of wood from them ; if not, from stumps 

 and dead trees. After being chewed by her and moistened 

 by a secretion from her mouth, this material is fashioned 

 by the feet and mandibles into circular cells. These become 

 hexagonal as their number is added to and the pressure in- 

 creases. The whole is waterproofed by a glutinous secre- 



77 



