172 FIELD ZOOLOGY. 



mother goes back to feed the growing larva, taking with 

 her freshly-killed insects each time till the larva is ready 

 to pupate, then she goes away permanently. 



Some of the solitary wasps burrow into the ground 

 until they find a fat grub, and in this they lay their egg, 

 whose larva will find fresh meat ready without any further 

 provision on the part of the mother. The egg hatches 

 in from one to three days, depending upon the species. 

 The old larva spins a cocoon about itself and enters 

 upon the pupal stage. In two or three weeks, if the egg 

 is laid in the early part of the season, or the following 

 spring if the egg is a late egg, there comes out a full- 

 grown wasp. 



Some solitary wasps conceal their burrows carefully 

 with twigs, pebbles, or straws, returning to it with ease. 

 From this it seems that we must accredit the wasp with a 

 fairly good memory and eyesight, even though it be 

 memory that develops each time out of the successive 

 recurrence of the same stimuli, which is conceded to be 

 the lowest form of what we call memory. The fact that 

 the wasp mother flies each time to her burrow without 

 apparent hesitation would argue that she knows the 

 way much as you and I would know our way. Another 

 fact that should be mentioned is the preference of wasps 

 for sunshine. In this connection it will be profitable to 

 note that the sense of sight, while it reaches a high degree 

 of development among the Hymenoptera, nevertheless 

 has degrees of excellence within the order. Bees see 

 much better than do wasps, and it is probable that ants 

 make the sense of smell do much for them that sight 

 would otherwise do. Wasps will work the center of a 

 blossoming field, rather avoiding the shaded edges. 



The social wasps can be distinguished from the true 



