SOCIAL INSECTS. 



643 



having attained full growth, they inclose themselves within the 

 cups, with silky convex caps, until their transformation to per- 

 fect wasps. 



So far as the disposition of the social wasp is concerned, it is a 

 case of being given a bad name, and — well, maltreated. But a 

 wasp seldom attacks when unmolested ; yet threaten its citadel, and 

 you will probably have cause to repent, for, with courage that we 

 all must admire, it boldly and persistently resents intrusion on 

 its dwelling and defends against disturbance its helpless young 

 brood. 



It combines the most opposed instincts of diet, and is an om- 

 nivorous feeder. From the first days of spring till autumn ends, 

 we may see wasps ( Vespa) intent upon stealing the sweet vegetable 

 liquor they love ; in spring they profit by the blossoms of fruit 

 trees. As the fair profusion of summer changes to the soberer 

 autumn wealth, they are presented with another fertile source of 

 nutriment, and it is then 

 their colonies immensely 

 increase. They fall upon 

 fruits voraciously, the 

 choicest and most ripe, 

 and so have gained for 

 themselves a worse repu- 

 tation than insects much 

 more injurious. Should 

 the season be warm and 

 the increase of their col- 

 onies commensurate with 

 the warmth, as it often 

 is, they become a verita- 

 ble plague, not only in 

 gardens, but at table they 

 agitate us while they 

 nibble at some luscious 

 dish. 



But, hateful maraud- 

 er though the wasp is in 

 these respects, it is a pre- 

 daceous as well as a vege- 

 table eater, and thus not 

 devoid of the compensat- 

 ing quality of usefulness in ridding us of many a fly and other 

 pests. The audacity with which it seizes and devours insects is 

 astonishing. The attack is sudden : it will spy a fly on the leaf of 

 a bush, and in the twinkling of an eye is upon it; if large, it is 

 dismembered ; head, wings, and legs are torn off, and the trunk is 



Fig. 2. — Home of Mtkapetea scutellaei8. 



