26o INSECT LIFE. 



wasps of the genus Vespa, which are commonly known 

 as yellow-jackets, and as hornets. With these insects 

 the body is comparatively short and stout (Fig. 235), 

 and is black, spotted and banded with yellowish white. 

 Some species of Vespa attach their nests to build- 

 insfs or to the branches of shrubs and trees. Such 

 nests are made of a gray paper com- 

 posed of fibers of weather-worn wood, 

 which the wasps obtain from fences and 

 the sides of unpainted buildings. 



Other species build their nests in 

 holes in the ground. These are usually 

 ¥iG. ^zS'-Vespa. composcd of brownish paper which is 

 quite fragile, being composed of more 

 or less decayed wood. Owing to the fragile nature 

 of this paper, the outer envelope of such nests con- 

 sists of many small, shell-like parts fastened together, 

 instead of large sheets. 



The social wasps resemble the bumblebees in 

 that a colony exists only one season ; the males and 

 workers die in the autumn, the young queens hiber- 

 nate, and each starts a new colony in the spring, the 

 queen at first performing the duties of both queen 

 and worker. The social wasps belong to the family 

 Vespid.^ (Ves'pi-das). 



THE DIGGER-WASPS. 



There are several families of wasplike insects 

 which have been classed together as the digger- 

 wasps, because most of the species make nests for 

 their young by digging burrows in the ground or in 

 wood. These insects differ from the true wasps in 

 that their wings lie flat above the body when at rest, 



