CHAPTER VIII 

 THE ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS : HYMENOPTERA 



For so work the honey-bees, 

 Creatures that by a rule in nature teach 

 The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 



SHAKESPEARE, King Henry V. 



Social Wasps. The common brown wasps (Polis'tes, Fig. 41) 

 are interesting on account of their communal life in nests of 

 paper made from wood-pulp. The mouth-parts are fitted both 

 for biting hard substances and also for lapping the fluids of 

 plants. The mandibles are much the same as in such biting 

 insects as the locusts ; the first maxillae are elongate, sharp- 

 pointed, lance-like organs, and the second maxillse are modi- 

 fied into a flexible, tongue-like structure covered with hairs, 

 to which sweets adhere. There are four membranous, trans- 

 parent wings, with few veins. The female is provided with 

 a formidable sting, an important means of defense, 

 which is in origin a modified ovipositor. 



Early in the spring a female Polistes, which has wintered 

 in a crevice, begins the construction of a nest in some suitable 

 place, either on the under side of a roof, especially in deserted 

 houses or barns, or on the ground beneath a stone. If there 

 are fences or barns in the region, she will very likely obtain 

 a supply of wood from them ; if not, from stumps and dead 

 trees. After being chewed by her and moistened by a secre- 

 tion from her mouth, this material is fashioned by the feet 

 and mandibles into circular cells, which become hexagonal 

 as their number is added to and the pressure increases. The 

 whole is waterproofed by a glutinous secretion, which is 

 said to be increased in amount in those cells which are most 



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