184 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



There was room enough on each boulder 

 for any number of wasps, but only one 

 might sit there at a time. 



The observer could not decide whether 

 some favourite wasp game, like foot-ball or 

 tennis, was being played, or whether these 

 drones really hated the sight of each other. 



Polistes is a wise little creature in the 

 things that pertain to wasps, and Mr. Belt 

 has told an interesting story of the intelli- 

 gence of one of the family in finding her 

 way back to an object she had left. 



He says, — 



"A specimen of Polistes carnifex was 

 hunting about for caterpillars in my garden. 

 I found one about an inch long and held it 

 out towards it on the point of a stick. It 

 seized it immediately, and commenced bit- 

 ing it from head to tail, soon reducing the 

 soft body to a mass of pulp. It rolled up 

 about half of it into a ball, and prepared to 

 carry it off. Being at the time amidst a 

 thick mass of a fine-leaved climbing plant, 



