VESPA, THE PAPER-MAKER 



The wise men call her Vespa macu- 

 lata, but to us she is plain Hornet. Most 

 of us, no doubt, have seen her great 

 paper nest, perched under the eaves of 

 a. barn, or hung from the branches of an 

 apple tree. It is probable too, that we 

 have come in sharp contact with the 

 fiery lady herself, and have had ample 

 cause to remember the circumstance. 



She has many cousins. Some of them 

 are carpenters, miners and masons. 

 These belong to what is known as the 

 "Solitary" branch of the family. Others, 

 the "Paper-makers," are social in their 

 habits. They live in communities, and 

 rear their young in common habitations. 

 There are three genera of Paper-makers 

 in the United States. Polybia, found 

 only in California; Polistes, the well- 

 known brown wasp, who builds her pret 

 ty paper combs, without a protecting 

 outer wall; and Vespa, including our 

 friend the Hornet, and another familiar 

 acquaintance, the yellow jacket. 



Vespa maculata may be known by her 

 white face, and the white markings on 

 her body. She is the largest and most 

 distinguished of her family and her nest, 

 in its delicacy and beauty, is a wonder 

 ful piece of insect architecture. 



Not without reason has she been 

 called the first paper-maker. While 

 Egypt still traced her records on stone, 

 or on the inner bark of the papyrus, the 

 ancestors of Vespa, were manufactur 

 ing a paper, that man has finally learned 

 to make after the same principle; for 

 paper is only vegetable fibre reduced to 

 pulp, and pressed into sheets. 



In the Wasp community the female is 

 unquestionably the better-half. The 

 male is necessary, but on the whole, su 

 perfluous in the hard work of life. Like 

 the worker, he dies in the fall, and leaves 

 his partner to bear her responsibilities 

 alone. As this is a circumstance over 

 which he has no control, he is not to be 

 blamed for it. 



Unlike the bee, the Wasp colony ex 

 ists for a season only. At the approach 



of cold weather the nest is deserted and 

 its once busy and bustling inmates crawl 

 about in an aimless sort of fashion, 

 numb with cold and miserable gen 

 erally. Only the Queen, upon whom 

 rests the hope of the race, has power to 

 survive the winter. Realizing the weight 

 of her responsibilities, she seeks out 

 some warm cranny, where with wings 

 and legs folded closely about her, she 

 may sleep through the cold period. Of 

 the many who thus dispose themselves 

 in fall, comparatively few live to see the 

 spring. Sometimes an unusually hard 

 frost penetrates their chosen retreat ; 

 again a heavy rain may wash them out, 

 or a bird, in search of his breakfast find 

 their hiding place. If, however, good 

 luck attends her, Vespa awakes in the 

 spring, full of plans for the new colony, 

 which she alone must found, for unlike 

 the Queen Bee, she has no helpers ready 

 to labor for her. Vespa, however, does 

 not shrink from the big task before her. 

 After throwing off her torpor in the 

 warm sunshine, and eating a breakfast, 

 for which her months of fast have, no 

 doubt, given her an appetite, she gets 

 down to real work. 



Her tools are a remarkable pair of 

 jaws which have been gradually adapted 

 to her needs. After choosing, and alight- * 

 ing on an old stump, she begins to gnaw 

 the wood fibre, lengthwise of the grain. 

 To watch her when so engaged, is ex 

 tremely interesting. She is the perfect 

 embodiment of restless activity. Bend 

 ing down her head, she plies her strong 

 jaws until a bit of wood is dislodged; 

 her wings, meanwhile, being kept in a 

 state of continual agitation, and her legs 

 incessantly lifted and set down except 

 at the moment of dislodging the wood, 

 when they are stiffened and braced for 

 a strong tug. Then she spreads her 

 wings, and is off to another spot, where 

 she goes through similar antics. At last 

 having gathered a small ball of wood 

 fibre, she throws herself back upon her 

 two pairs of hind legs, and standing thus 



