CHAPTER III 



THE PELOPiElTS 



/~\F the several insects that elect to make 

 ^■^ their home in our houses, certainly the 

 most interesting, for the beauty of its shape, 

 the singularity of its manners and the 

 structure of its nests, is the Pelopaeus, a 

 Wasp hardly known even to the people 

 whose fireside she frequents. Her solitary 

 habits and her peaceful occupation of the 

 premises explain why history is silent in her 

 regard. She is so extremely retiring that her 

 host is nearly always ignorant of her 

 presence. Fame is for the noisy, the im- 

 portunate, the noxious. Let us try to 

 rescue the modest creature from oblivion. 

 An extremely chilly mortal, the Pelopaeus 

 pitches her tent under the kindly sun which 

 ripens the olive and prompts the Cicada's 

 song; and even then she needs for her 

 family the additional warmth furnished by 

 our dwellings. Her usual refuge is the 

 peasant's lonely cottage, with its old fig-tree 

 shading the well in front of the door. She 

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