WASPS 213 



temper very much alike, which I had been accus- 

 tomed to observe in boyhood and youth in a 

 distant region. They attracted me more, perhaps, 

 than any other insects on account of their singular 

 and brilliant coloration and their formidable char- 

 acter. They were beautiful but painful creatures; 

 the pain they caused me was first bodily, when I 

 interfered in their concerns or handled them care- 

 lessly, and was soon over; later it was mental and 

 more enduring. 



To the very young colour is undoubtedly the 

 most attractive quality in nature, and these insects 

 were enamelled in colours that made them the 

 rivals of butterflies and shining metallic beetles. 

 There were wasps with black and yellow rings and 

 with black and scarlet rings; wasps of a uniform 

 golden brown; others like our demoiselle dragon- 

 fly that looked as if fresh from a bath of splendid 

 metallic blue; others with steel-blue bodies and 

 bright red wings; others with crimson bodies, 

 yellow head and legs, and bright blue wings; others 

 black and gold, with pink head and legs; and so 

 on through scores and hundreds of species " as 

 Nature list to play with her little ones," until one 

 marvelled at so great a variety, so many singular 

 and beautiful contrasts, produced by half-a-dozen 

 brilliant colours. 



It was when I began to find out the ways of 

 wasps with other insects on which they nourish 

 their young that my pleasure in them became 

 mixed with pain. For they did not, like spiders, 



