206 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



a kind of paper made by chewing woody fibre. 

 In the nest is a small comb containing at first 

 four and later about thirty cells, and in each cell 

 an egg is laid. When the eggs are hatched the 

 queen does all the work of feeding the grubs, 

 which, in about a month's time, develop into 

 worker wasps. Almost as soon as these have 

 dried their wings they commence the labour of 

 enlarging the nest, and henceforth the queen con- 

 fines herself to the one function of egg-laying. 

 In this way the wasps' nest grows throughout the 

 summer, and one which began by being as large 

 as a golf ball may end by being six inches in 

 diameter and more than a foot in length, with 

 a population many thousands strong. 



Perhaps the best way of acquiring a little 

 knowledge of wasp habits is to watch the arrivals 

 at the nest, noting what they bring home with 

 them. They neither store nor make honey, and 

 in their anatomy there is nothing corresponding 

 to the pollen -basket of the bees. A very brief 

 vigil at the nest will show that they are beasts of 

 prey. Every arrival takes something with her 

 of an animal nature. The most frequent captive 

 is the aphis or green fly, enormous numbers of 

 which fall a prey to the wasps. But the wasp 

 does not specialize. If she finds fly-maggots she 

 takes them home ; flies themselves serve her turn, 

 and spiders have no terrors for her. When she 

 has flies to carry she generally cuts off the wings 

 and legs for the simplification of transit, and to 

 see her at the process is almost to be compelled 

 to have views on the subject of insect intelligence. 



