Wasps 



written-about bees and ants. Their ingenuity in capturing their 

 prey, the care with which they conceal their burrows, the differ- 

 ent individuality among members of the same species, and more 

 astonishing than all, the actual use of improvised tools by these 

 creatures, and many other points which the Peckhams have 

 brought out and described make one wish to drop all other oc- 

 cupations and immediately begin the study of the solitary wasps. 



The active little wasps of the family Oxybelidae are known 

 in Europe to burrow in the sand and to provision their nests with 

 flies. European writers state that they do not paralyze the flies 

 by stinging as with most other digger wasps, but that they crush 

 the thorax just beneath the wings so as to destroy the great nerve 

 ganglia at that spot. The Peckhams found one of our American 

 species, Oxybelus quadrinotatus, burrowing in the sand and 

 storing flies after the burrow was completed. There were some- 

 times a dozen flies in the same nest and all had the thorax 

 crushed. This little wasp carries its prey by clasping the head of 

 the victim with the third pair of legs, and flying thus, with the 

 whole body of the fly sticking out behind her, she presents a re- 

 markable appearance. 



The wasps of the family Crabronidae are usually larger, but 

 still are rather small insects. They burrow in sand and clay and 

 many of them make their burrows in wood — in palings, posts, 

 stumps and decaying logs. They store in their cells a great 

 variety of insects. Xylocrabro (Crabro) stirpicola was found by 

 the Peckhams to fill its cells with different kinds of flies. Others 

 store spiders and plant lice. The interesting observation was 

 made by the Peckhams on the species just mentioned that it works 

 at night and that "her manners were an agreeable contrast to 

 those of the wasps that we had been watching through the day. 

 The feverish excitement of their ways seemed quite in keeping 

 with the burning heat of noon, while Crabro's slow and gentle 

 movements harmonized perfectly with the long shadows of 

 evening." One specimen was seen to work industriously for 

 forty-two hours, toiling from three in the afternoon on July 27, 

 through that night and the day and night following until nine 

 o'clock on the morning of the 29th. ' ' Surely, " say the Peckhams, 

 "she takes the palm for industry, not only from other wasps but 

 from the ant and bee as well." Her burrow was thirty-nine cen- 

 timeters in length and was made in the stalk of a raspberry or 



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