NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



of their globular clay cell. The digger wasps make 

 tubular burrows in the ground, and care for their off- 

 spring after the fashion of the mud-daubers. The 

 paper-making wasps are for the most part social insects, 

 rear their progeny in the home nest, hke ants and bees; 

 and the insects which they capture are manducated and 

 fed to the wasplings by mouth. Most of these, like our 

 bald-faced hornet (Vespa maculata), lash their wood- 

 pulp nests to trees and bushes. This is but a rude and 

 approximate grouping, and any observer might cite 

 exceptions. Our common yellow- jacket will at once 

 occur, which, although a social insect, commonly bur- 

 rows in the ground, and in the hollow shelters her wood- 

 pulp cells, an odd combination of the habits of the 

 paper-making and the bmTowing wasps. / Yet for popu- 

 lar ends it will be useful, and may easily lead to a more 

 scientific classification. 



Even the most formidable of the order Aranea are 

 not exempt from the wasp's incursions. The "taran- 

 tula" of our Southwestern States (Eurypelma Hentzii) 

 is the giant of our spider fauna, but it cowers and falls 

 before a large and beautiful wasp (Pepsis formosa) 

 known as the "tarantula-killer." The author has seen 

 this insect in Texas hunting for its gigantic victim, 

 whose flurried and excited movements showed that it 

 knew its peril and sought to avoid it. 



The tarantula-killer is a bustling, unquiet creature. 

 When running on the ground its wings vibrate continu- 

 ously. When it sights its prey it flies in circles around 

 it. The tarantula trembles violently; now runs and 

 hides; now, rising rampant, shows signs of fight. The 

 watchful huntress finds a favorable moment, darts upon 

 its victim with curved body, and thrusts in its sting, if 



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