78 



GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



tion, which is said to be increased in amount in those cells 

 which are most exposed to the weather. As soon as one cell 

 is finished the female lays an egg in it, and to her duty of 

 enlarging and strengthening the nest she soon has to add 

 the care of the footless, worm-like larvae, which hatch in a 

 few days. These are fed with both plant and animal food, 

 the former consisting of nectar which has been swallowed 

 and later regurgitated (that is, thrown back after being 



Fig. 53. Paper-making wasp and nest. (Natural size) 



swallowed) ; the latter, of caterpillar meat chopped fine by 

 the mandibles and worked into a jelly-like mass. In about 

 three weeks' time the first-born larvae spin a silken lining 

 and covering to the cell and pass into an inactive pupal 

 stage. Three weeks later the first imagoes appear, after 

 having cut a circular opening in the end of the cell. 



These first imagoes differ somewhat from their mother 

 and are really imperfectly developed females, called neuters 

 or workers. They have the power, under certain conditions, 

 of laving eggs, but their eggs never produce true females. 

 Generally the workers attend strictly to the business of 

 caring for the young and repairing and enlarging the nest. 

 They assume care of the young at about the third day. 



