38 TEIBES OF THE 



Next, the RuLywasps invite us, 

 Clad in mail of gorgeous colours, 

 Blue and green, carmine and purple, 

 Gliding over walls or palings. 

 Who is there that has not watched them, 

 As with vilirating antennae 

 They inspect each crack and cranny, 

 Seeking out the nests of Wallwasps, 

 Masonbees, or bees that build in 

 Posts, or mortared walls, or sandbanks, 

 Forming there the cosy dwellings. 

 Dwellings for their future young ones ? 

 When these dwellings she discovers. 

 The sly Rubywasp deposits 

 All her eggs among the larvae, 

 ^^'ith a weapon telescopic- 

 Fashioned, joint in joint retractile ; 

 And her young, when hatched, devour up 

 All the food that was provided 

 For the young of Bees and Wallwasps. 

 Let us call them Chrysidina, 

 Rubywasps or Chrysidina : 

 Their antennae short and elbowed. 

 Their wings clear and almost rayless, 

 Their feet always are fivejointed, 

 Their waist is almost divided. 

 But the two parts are united 

 By a very short peduncle. 



