338 HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



of the species, we have seen. The subject has by no means 

 been exhausted. Over a thousand species of ants have been 

 already described. The published observations relate to 

 but a few of this legion of specific forms. In this country 

 no observers have yet occurred, except Dr. Lincecum and 

 Mr. J. A. Allen, who have published an^'thing worthy of 

 note on the habits of our native species. Here is a rich, 

 nnworked mine of knowledge which will afford the most 

 interesting results to the younger naturalists of the country. 

 AVhen the good time comes, that millennium of American 

 biological science, when all our species of animals shall have 

 been classified, we shall hope for good work in the field of 

 the observation of habits. 



The wasps are both social and solitar3% The latter build 

 separate cells of sand or mud, sometimes placing several 

 together. These cells are filled with the paralyzed bodies 

 of caterpillars and other insects, and closed up. The young 

 wasp begins life with a living supply of food at hand. The 

 larvffi at least help themselves. Not so with the newl}' born 

 young of the social wasps. They are daily fed by the 

 parent or worker wasp. 



Here we come again to insects, where a large part of the 

 duties of the hive, those maternal cares only evinced in other 

 insects by the mothers themselves, devolve upon a spinster 

 race who have apparently all the labors and anxieties with- 

 out the realities of maternity. What a strange phenomenon, 

 this possession of the mental traits of the softer sex (if that 

 term will apply to these insects, for the Avorkers sting, while 

 the males are harmless), without the })ower of transmitting 

 them. 



The simplest form of nest in the social wasps which we 

 have in the United States are those of the Polistes, which 

 consist of a number of cells attached by a common stalk to 

 the branch of some bush, the entire nest being large enough 

 to cover a third of one's hand, the cells being placed mouth 



18 



