62 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



fly, their wasp minds, searching for a cause 

 and relying upon past experience to sup- 

 ply it, naturally concluded they had carved 

 out too heavy a steak, and they set to work 

 cutting their pieces of meat smaller and 

 smaller. Poor little fellows! What hap- 

 pened when the fragments had been reduced 

 to the smallest possible size and the wings 

 still refused to perform their office, the 

 record does not state, but surely there was 

 material for tragedy in the annals of 

 waspdom. 



Besides eating animal food herself, 

 Vespa carries it home to feed the larvae in 

 the nest. 



Wasps doubtless deserve far more credit 

 than they usually get for their services as 

 fly-catchers. Mr. Wood, in his "Homes 

 . without Hands,'* tells of pigs lying in the 

 warm sunshine covered with flies which 

 wasps pounced upon and carried away. 



Another observer watched wasps catch- 

 ing flies on two cows, and in twenty min- 



