^02 



Home Nature-Study Course. 



spring makes a little comb of a few cells and covers it with a thin layer of paper. 

 She then lays eggs in these ceils and gathers food for the young; but when 

 these oldest members of the family, which are always workers, come to maturity 

 they build the nest larger and feed the young. Then all the queen has to do is 

 to lay eggs in the cells as fast as they are made. Wasps mske their houses 

 larger by simply cutting away the paper from the inside of the covering to 

 give more room for building the combs wider, and by building additional 

 layers on the outside of the nest. Thus it is that every wasp nest, however 

 large, began with just a little comb of a few cells and was enlarged to meet 

 the needs of a rapidly growing family. Ordinarily the nest made one year 

 is not used again. Wasps are of great benefit to us because they live so largely 

 upon mosquitoes and flies. 



References. — " Wasps and Their Ways," Alorley; " Wasps Social and 

 Solitary," Peckham; "Manual for the Study of Insects," Comstock; 

 " Insects," Kellogg. 



Photo by M. V. Slingerland. 



Nest of Black Hornet with covering cut away 



