Marvels of Insect Life, 



Photo by] [E. Step, F.L.S. 



Horned Membracid. 



This photo gives a view from above of the Insect that is shown in 

 profile on page 54. The stout horns are more evident in this 

 aspect, though the long central spine is less so. Eight times the 

 natural size. 



Photo by] \E. Step, F.L.S 



European Mud-Dauber. 



This species — whose cells are shown in the lower part of page 50 — 

 in the South of France exhibits a weakness for constructing its 

 cells in the broad open fireplace, in spite of smoke and heat. Twice 

 the natural size. 



Fabre mentions one ^ that, (j1 all ])1; 

 in the broad open fireplaces of the 

 although safe from the flames, it is not 



' Sceliphron 



who protect them and feed upon their 

 excretions. 



More than eight hundred species of 

 these remarkable Insects have been 

 described from temperate and tropical 

 America, the West Indies, Africa, and 

 the East Indies. Of these, more than 

 half belong to tropical America. Very 

 few occur in Europe, and these appear 

 to have been derived from the nearer 

 parts of Africa. 



The Mud-Daubers. 



The term mud-dauber is scarcely 

 a nice descriptive word to apply to the 

 work of an accomplished mason, but it 

 must be taken as marking the resent- 

 ment shown by people in various parts 

 of the world whose house-property, in- 

 cluding ceilings, cornices, door-jambs, 

 and even the furniture, is disfigured by 

 having lumps of clay as big as one's 

 fist strongly attached. The wasps 

 who engage in this kind of misplaced 

 decoration do not do so, as many 

 people imagine, " out of pure cussed- 

 ness," but as a provision for the 

 comfort of their offspring. The so- 

 called daub of mud is reallv a cluster 

 of earthen cells, upon which, to dis- 

 guise its true character, the industrious 

 mother wasp plasters mud and more 

 mud, until she has filled up all the 

 interstices between the cells, and the 

 cluster becomes one mass which looks 

 quite solid. There are many different 

 species of the solitary wasps that con- 

 struct their cells in this way, and 

 it is remarkable that so many of 

 them should manifest a preference 

 for human habitations as their build- 

 ing sites, 

 ices for its nesting-site, selects a nook 

 peasants of Southern Europe, where, 

 free from smoke. In spit(> of cooking 



spirifcx. 



