RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



351 



Future. -Piovtrt, it will rain. 



Vat art Pnftet, Avri pioviito. a wiU har. rain*!. 



rial Prwnt. Piovordbtw, a vouI4 . 



nul IW. AvrebUj jjiovuto, it would hav$ raiiud. 



SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. 

 Pr*nf. Piors. tt may rain. 

 Jm)*r/ot. Piovrfssa, it miyh* rain. 

 Perfect. AbbU pioruto, it may havt ruinci. 

 Plu|*r/ct. Ariose ploviit ,iiw rain4. 



RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



SOLITARY WASPS AM > 



THX name of Social Wasps and Bees hat been applied to those 

 interesting membora of tho ordor of insects termed by entomo- 

 legists Hymenoptera, who, living in communities, aooompliah 



'mr the beautiful 



rxlulnt.'l in tho comb of tho hivc-hoo and tho neat of 

 the common wasp. Thero are, however, others belonging to the 

 same division of tho order who do not congregate in large 

 !1 in oommunitioH, but whose labours in pro- 

 viding a sure place of protection for their young are began 

 irriod through, in each case, by one and tho same indi- 

 vidual, and honce these derive their appellation of Solitary 

 Wasps and Ik-en. It is remarkable that amongst them it is 

 invariably tho mother who constructs tho nost, and prepares 

 : ires up the food required by the young grub when it 

 leaves the egg. The male takes no part in the building of the 

 nursery ; neither are there any neuters or workers, as amongst 

 tho hive-bees, to attend exclusively to the comforts of the 

 family. Of tho.se solitary wasps and bees we shall notice prin- 

 cipally those which are common in our own country, and which 

 have received the names of Masons, Miners, Carpenters, Uphol- 

 sterers, and Rose-leaf Cutters, according to their various habits in 

 the arrangement of their nests. One variety of tho mason-wasp 

 selects a brick wall as the locality for her building operations, 

 in commencing which she may frequently be seen busily employed 

 in digging into it with her powerful mandibles, and removing 

 in them at each excavation a piece about tho size of a mustard- 

 seed. In doing this, she is most careful not to drop abont these 

 fragments, or scatter them on the ground at tho foot of tho 

 wall, thereby discovering her whereabouts to the parasitic 

 enemies of her race, but carries them off successively to some 

 distant place of concealment. Having completed her exca- 

 vation to something less than an inch in depth, which usually 

 takes her about two days to accomplish, she lines it with clay, 

 which she brings some distance between her legs ; and having 

 deposited two eggs in it, and stored up with them a supply of 

 spiders and caterpillars for the nourishment of the young grub 

 when hatched, she carefully closes up the nest with a thick 

 coating of clay, and the business of her life is accomplished. 



Another variety selects a hard and compact sand-bank exposed 

 to the heat of tho sun, and bores into it a tubular gallery, forming 

 at tho mouth of the burrow a sort of outwork or tower with tho 

 sand she removes from the interior, by moistening with saliva, and 

 kneading it into pellets for building purposes. In this gallery 

 she makes the cells for her eggs, and rolls up in each the food 

 required. The tower, which in shape and size corresponds to 

 the body of the insect, is apparently erected for tho purpose of 

 sheltering the little architect during her labours, and perhaps 

 also as a protection to the young from tho violent heat of the 

 sun, and from the inroads of their implacable enemy, the 

 ichnenrnon-fly, although, in some instances, the wasp destroys 

 it after closing up the nest. The food provided by the mason- 

 wasp consists always of green caterpillars, which she arranges 

 in a spiral column, and in such a manner that, although still 

 alive, they have not the power of moving. When the grub is 

 hatched, it devours the store of nourishment, forms a cocoon, 

 becomes a chrysalis, and, after the usual transformation, leaves 

 the nest a perfect wasp. In South America, these sand mason- 

 wasps construct a pouch-shaped nest two inches in length, and 

 attached either to the branch of a tree or some other prominent 

 object, and stock it with a peculiar sort of spider, closing it up 

 when the eggs are deposited. While occupied in building their 

 vhich they sometimes place about the windows and doors 

 of houses, they make a loud humming sound, varying their tone 

 according to the different parts of the work they are engaged in. 



Tho nuwon-bee employ* a variety of materials in th for> 

 mation of her neat, although the principle of its construction 

 i* nimilar to that of the mup; the food stored op in it u pollen 

 and honey, instead of oaUrpUlan. It may sometimes be found 

 in tha cemont botwoon two brick*, in aonM cases aftod or earth 

 and chalk mixed ; in other*, wood and earth together being 

 employed in building it. A oake of dry mod, apparently 

 thrown against the wall, may be frequently met with, which, 

 on oloaor inspection, will be eeen to contain more atony particle* 

 than are usually found in common road mod, and to have a 

 circular hole on the aide, Thia will prove to be the entrance to 

 a mason-boo' s neat, and will lead to a cell about an inch in 

 d.-ptii, and thimble-shaped. Two or more of these eella are 

 contained in one nest, according to the epaee between the 

 They appear to be oompoeed of the mortar from the 

 wall, but tho external covering, or lamp of mad, u evidently 

 formed by little pellets of sand, collected grain by grain, and 

 glued together with saliva, aa in the case of the waep, a few 

 tony particles being occasionally intermingled. These buy 

 nuuona have often, while at their labours, attracted the notice 

 of naturalist*, and their proceedings baring been closely 

 watched, the quarry, aa it were, from which their supplies of 

 sand and earth are derived, ha* been discovered, and themselves 

 traced from thence to their building site. It baa been noticed 

 that at the sand-bank the approach of the pectator eaoaed 

 them no alarm, nor did it interfere in the least with their work 

 of kneading and gluing up the pellets, which they quietly 

 pursued as if no stranger were nigh. Not so, however, when 

 followed to their nests, for there they would ahow fear, and 

 evince tho utmost unwillingness to enter, aa if feeling that by 

 so doing they were bet. ay ing to the foe the stronghold they 

 wore erecting for the future protection of their family. They 

 would fly round and round, making wide circuits, and apparently 

 endeavouring to lead the supposed enemy off the scent, thus 

 showing plainly how strong, even in these little creature*, ia 

 the maternal instinct of providing a safe refuge for their young 

 implanted in them by a beneficent Creator. The French ento- 

 mologist, Reaumur, mentions a variety of mason-bee which, 

 having selected a natural cavity in some stone, forms in it a 

 nest of garden mould, moistened with her glutinous saliva, 

 closing with care the aperture by means of the same material, 

 after the deposition of tho eggs, and the honey and pollen 

 requisite for the nourishment of the grub. In the sand-bank, 

 which serves as a quarry to the mason-bee, may sometimes be 

 found very small holes, into each of which a little bee, not much 

 larger than a house-fly, may be seen passing. This ia the 

 mining-bee, which digs a smooth circular gallery, not much 

 wider than tho diameter of her own body. This terminates in 

 a chamber of the shape of a thimble, much larger than tho 

 entrance to the gallery, and nearly at right angles to it. The 

 earth which has been excavated from the gallery has been 

 observed to bo heaped up at the opening, and to be afterwards 

 used to close it against the depredations of the ichneumon and 

 other enemies. 



Another of the solitary workers is the carpenter-bee, so 

 called from her nest being built in wood only posts, palings, 

 and decaying woodwork being selected by her for the purpose. 

 We must not suppose, however, that she will take up her abode 

 where actual decay or dry-rot are established, for these she 

 carefully eschews, and only seeks such a measure of them as 

 will soften tho wood and diminish the labour of her task. Her 

 first employment is to chisel out of the wood with her jaws the 

 space requisite for her nest, and in doing this she is fully aa 

 careful as the mason-wasp in removing all trace of the frag- 

 ments, although she does not appear to carry them to so great 

 a distance. After the chiselling process is completed, she 

 makes the sides as smooth as possible, and then divides the 

 nest, by means of partitions of clay, into cells, each containing 

 its egg and store of pollen. When the work is completed, the 

 artificer closes the entrance with clay, thus keeping out all 

 parasites who might place their eggs by the side of her own, 

 and endanger the life of her offspring. 



The violet carpenter-bee, which, however, does not appear to- 

 be a British species, although well known to French naturalists, 

 lias been seen to bore in an upright piece of wood a perpen- 

 dicular tunnel of twelve or fifteen inches in length, and half an 

 inch in breadth. This is entered through an oblique passage. 

 about an inch long, and is divided into cells in a peculiar 



