THE MINERS 



THESE wasps dig tunnels in the ground. 

 One sees them, in the hottest part of 

 the summer, working as if the intense heat 

 were the power that put them in motion. 

 The hotter the day, the more fiercely they 

 work, and when not digging they are fly- 

 ing swiftly about as if looking for some- 

 thing they were in desperate need 

 of finding, and finding right away, 

 One cannot help noticing them, 

 particularly as some of them are 

 of very large size and present a 

 most formidable appearance. They are all 

 harmless, however, if let alone. The sol- 

 itary wasp will never go out of its way 

 to sting. Queens, whether bees or wasps, 

 do not carelessly risk the loss of the sting, 

 which is also the ovipositor, its loss entail- 

 ing the destruction of the mother insect, 



254 



