v WASPS AND BEES. 



i 



i . 



I THINK that the wasps were certainly the primary 

 cause of the death of the bees, though the ants 

 may have played the part of jackals by finishing 

 the bodies afterwards. I have myself seen wasps 

 attack and carry off bees, always taking them at 

 a disadvantage, as, for instance, when extracting 

 the honey from flowers. They would seize them 

 by the hinder part of the thorax, and kill them by 

 plunging their stings between the segments of the 

 abdomen. However, the law, eat and be eaten, 

 holds good even in the case of the wasps, as the 

 hornet, which bears the same proportion to them 

 as the tiger does to a leopard, is their constant 

 enemy. Five or six hornets will hover about near 

 a wasp's nest, watching an opportunity for swooping 

 on any straggler, which may separate himself from 

 the swarm around the nest. When humble bees 

 or other insects are captured by birds, they generally 

 kill them at once, in order to avoid the chance of 



