The Nest-building Odynerus 



ployed for the partitions. The Odynerus, 

 it goes without saying, does not neglect this 

 means of defence: she, too, makes a solid 

 stopper; but to the unsophisticated method 

 of the Osmia she adds the resources of 

 a more highly-finished art. Over her 

 earthen stopper, a thing liable to be spoilt 

 by frost and damp, she spreads, on the out- 

 side, a good thick layer of a composition 

 of clay and chopped-up woody fibres. It 

 matches the red wax with which we seal the 

 corks of our bottles. 



These fibres, which resemble the remains 

 of a coarse tow retted by long exposure to 

 the air, I should be inclined to look upon as 

 taken from reeds spoilt by the rain and 

 bleached by the sun. The Odynerus planes 

 them off in shavings, which she afterwards 

 crumbles by chewing them. This is how 

 the Common Wasps and the Polistes work 

 on soft dead wood, when gathering the raw 

 material for their brown paper. But the 

 reed-dweller, who has no intention of em- 

 ploying her scrapings for paper-making, 

 does not cut up these fibrous particles any- 

 thing like so finely. She contents herself 

 with breaking them up and unravelling them 

 a little. Mixed with thick mud, the same 

 as that of the partitions and the final plug, 

 191 



