INTRODUCTION 19 



There are a great many species of soli- 

 tary wasps in the United States, and they 

 are very difficult to classify. They do not 

 build nests of paper, but bore holes in the 

 earth or in wood, or make nests in hollow 

 stems, or build them of mud against the 

 walls of buildings or under stones or on 

 bushes. 



Wasps possess a more versatile, if lower, 

 intelligence than bees. Bees have become 

 crystallised, as it were; their habits are 

 formed; they have arrived at perfection 

 along their line, and therefore are in a 

 condition of suspended development. 



Not so wasps, — they have not arrived ; 

 they are arriving. So, while bees stand 

 highest structurally and socially, their 

 communities organised and in working 

 order from wax-secreting to honey-mak- 

 ing, wasps are yet blazing a way through 

 the unknown wilderness of wasp possi- 

 bilities. They yet have their problems to 

 solve and are yet to a far greater extent 



