1 84 SOLITARY BEES AND WASPS. 



window, and seeing that some were like little 

 pockets half open, and others closed up, I was led 

 to watch and see what was going on. 



A slender kind of wasp, a species of Odynerus, 

 marked with black and yellow stripes, came with 

 materials in her mouth, and began working on 

 some of these mud cells against the wall ; she kept 

 on, hard at work all day at her masonry. 



At last I thought I would open one of the 

 finished cells and see what was inside, so with 

 a fine penknife I broke away part of the cell wall, 

 and there I found a number of greyish green cater- 

 pillars half killed and unable to move. Down at 

 the bottom of the cell was the wasp's egg, and the 

 instinct of the mother insect leads her to obtain 

 these caterpillars, and in order that they may be in 

 fit condition for the grub when it hatches out of the 

 egg, she gives each of the caterpillars a bite which 

 paralyses it but does not affect any vital part, so 

 it lives on in a helpless condition, and the wasp 

 grub literally eats its way through the caterpillars 

 till it is full-grown, then it turns to a chrysalis, and 

 after a time it becomes a black and yellow wasp 

 like its mother. 



