ORDER VI. ^VEIN-WINGED INSECTS. 



241 



The Mud-wasp. 



insect is more than one inch long, and of a dark-blue pur- 

 ple color. It makes Figure 68. 



its abode in the 

 loose,sandy ground, 

 and when difr^ins 



CO o 



its hole resembles 

 a dog digging after 

 mice, throwing the 

 earth under it to- 

 ward its hind body 

 v/ith the fore feet. 

 If the pile of sand 

 becomes too high 

 or troublesome, it 

 places itself upon it, and throws the earth behind it with 

 great force until it is leveled. As soon as its subter- 

 ranean abode is prepared, it seizes a large spider, or a 

 caterpillar, or some other insect, stings it in the neck, and 

 then carries it into its hole. It is curious to see one of 

 these wasps take hold of a cockroach, seizing it by one of 

 its long antenna?, and continually walking backward, com- 

 pelling the cockroach to follow, notwithstanding its great 

 reluctance and constant opposition, until both have arrived 

 at the hole, when the wasp kills it by a sting in the neck, 

 then tears it into pieces, and carries it into her subterranean 

 dwelling as food for her offspring. 



There are several other species of this wasp which man- 

 age in a similar manner with their prey, but which make 

 their dwellings in rotten wood, as the Philanthus; or build 

 dwellings of clay upon the walls of houses, as the Pelopaus. 

 There are others which build cells resembling honey- 

 combs, which they manufacture out of decayed fibres of 

 wood, after converting them into a paper-like material. 

 One species of these wasps fasten their abode, which con- 

 sists only of a few dozen combs, upon the twig of a bush or 



