248 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 



wasps, and later with their strong adult 

 jaws will gnaw out of their prison cells, 

 and soon after will gnaw into other dead 

 branches in the interest of their own 

 progeny. 



A very pretty story is told about one 

 of these little stem-tunnelling wasps, the 

 Crabro stirpicola, a tiny creature only 

 a quarter of an inch long, with a black- 

 and yellow banded body and yellow legs. 

 She was found at half-past five o'clock 

 in the afternoon, when she had just 

 begun her excavation. "Her manners 

 were an agreeable contrast to those of 

 the wasps that we had been watching 

 through the day. The feverish excitement 

 of their ways seemed quite in keeping 

 with the burning heat of noon, while 

 Crabro' s slow and gentle movements har- 

 monised perfectly with the long shadows 

 of evening." 



But Crabro was persevering, if not 

 tempestuous ; she bit out the pith with her 



