238 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



eaten, which are woven into its silken 

 covering; and sometimes it uses the chips 

 of wood it may find in its nest in the same 

 way. 



Whether it considers these additions 

 ornamental, or whether it uses them to get 

 them out of the way, itself alone knows. 



When the transformation is completed, 

 the mud cap is gnawed away and forth 

 from the log issues a young wasp. 



These things happen to a larva into 

 whose nest no chrysis has found place. 



Where the chrysis tgg is laid in the 

 nest there is another story to tell. 



The vigorous young chrysis devours the 

 food intended for the wasp — and inci- 

 dentally devours the wasp too. 



Now matters go on as before, only that 

 a changeling occupies the cradle. It eats 

 and grows — it becomes a pupa — trans- 

 forms to an adult chrysis — bites its way 

 out through the mud cap, and comes forth 

 — ready to try for its own offspring the 



