WASP PLAGUES 207 



A wasp has been seen to struggle against the 

 wind with a fly, and, finding that its wings caught 

 the breeze, to descend and shave them off in the 

 most knowing fashion. It may thus be said that, 

 as a fly and maggot and aphis destroyer, the wasp 

 plays a useful part in the world to set against 

 its depredations in the orchard when fruit-time 

 comes round and the occasional poisoned dagger - 

 work it carries out on the human cuticle. 



It must not be assumed, however, that the wasp, 

 as wasp, is a carnivorous animal, for it is not. 

 The grubs are carnivorous, and all the bodies of 

 aphides and flies brought to the nest are for them. 

 Inside they are torn up and administered to the 

 occupants of the cells, which are as voracious 

 as young cuckoos. If a nest is broken up and 

 a comb containing live grubs is secured, the grubs 

 may be fed with fragments of meat and the keen- 

 ness of their appetite realized. This gross taste 

 disappears when the young wasp has passed 

 through the pupa stage and reaches developed 

 insecthood. Though it then hunts for flesh for 

 the use of its younger brethren, it finds its own 

 sustenance mainly, like the bees, from flowers, 

 till the fruit is ripe, when it concentrates its atten- 

 tion on the sweetest it can find, preferably plums 

 and pears. At this stage in its life -story the 

 wasp generally gives up the labour of keeping 

 the community going, knowing, perhaps, that the 

 first October frost will bring the whole enterprise 

 to an end ; and when ripe pears are falling from 

 the tree, there may the marauders be found in 

 numbers all day long. 



