Digger-Wasp and Cicada. 



155 



decorated with spines upon the fore-body as well as the smaller ones usual on the legs. 

 There are few representatives of the family in Britain, and of these the majority are 

 found only in the South of England. Quite recently, however, their numbers have 

 been increased by the introduction of a singular alieni with foreign plants, which has 

 become naturalized in our greenhouses. This, no doubt, will cause alarm to the 

 owners and gardeners, but it is probable that it will do them far more good than 

 harm by destroying noxious Insects rather than plants. 



Digger-Wasp and Cicada. 



The digger-wasp ^ is one of the largest species of wasp, and withal one of the 

 fiercest of its kind. Like other of the solitary-wasps whose ways are described 

 in this work, its efforts on behalf of the comfort and well-being of its progeny take the 

 form of excavating deep burrows and provisioning them with sufticient food to last 

 the grub until it is fully grown. It is a fine black and yellow-banded wasp with 

 the black predominating over the yellow ; and with a spread of wings amounting 

 to two and three-quarter inches. 



Selecting a bank where the 

 soil is drv the female digger drives 

 a shaft into the bank for a distance 

 of about six inches, almost hori- 

 zontally, but with a slight down- 

 ward slope. Then it makes a 

 sudden turn, is continued vertically 

 for a similar distance, and ends in 

 a spherical chamber an inch and 

 a half across. Sometimes there are 

 several side branches of the main 

 shafts, each ending in a similar Xhe Dk;ger-\\asp. 



round cell. Kach cell has to be 'his soIltary-wasp, here shown of the natural size, preys upon the much 



. . 1 1 r • • 1 larger cicada, which it stings and then entombs in a cell in the earth 



provisioned before it is readv to excavated for the purpose. I'pon the paralyzed cicada an egg is laid, and 



. . . , " the wasp-grub that hatches tlierefroni finds in the cicada sulTicient food to 



receive one of the digger s eggs, support its development. 



and to this end the digger-wasp sets out on a hunting expedition. Its prey is 

 one of the large cicadas, known in the United States as the lyreman^ or dog-day 

 cicad.i, an Insect that is niurh kirger, and in triitli (|iiitf twice the weight oi the 

 digger, 'ilie olnious w;i\- of dealing with a capture that has this advantage o\'er 

 the captor is for the latter to divide the booty and take it away j)iecemeal. Uut 

 the digger wants its \ictim whole and still ali\-e, tliough paralyzed and helpless. 



To hunt for cicadas is not a matter of great difiiculty, for the males so per- 

 sistentK and loiidh- ad\ertise their pres(>nt situation that they cannot well be 

 overlooked. The digger-wasp has onl\- to ll\' to the trees from which the doleful 

 chorus of cicada notes is swelling, and pick out the lyreman that appears to be 

 most suitable. But among the branches it is impossible to get a start in flight 

 with so heav\- a load. A weight, however, mav be dragged or hauled when it cannot 

 be (juried ; and the digger ha\'ing stung its victim to ensure (juiescence starts 

 hauling it up the tree until it arri\'es at a clear space at sufficient height to enable 

 ' Diastrinmui niarniorata. - Sphccius spcciosus. ' Cicada libicen. 



