WASPS, SOCIAL AND SOLITARY 



The Crabro wasps all have pleasant ideas as to where 

 they want to live, but interruptus excels in the choice 

 of a dwelling place. We lately found ten or twelve of 

 them in Milwaukee, nesting in an old log on the shore 

 of Lake Michigan, and when they opened their doors 

 in the morning they had before them the splendor of the 

 great bay; but calm in the midst of the glory they never 

 paused on the threshold, as Cerceris would have done, 

 to take a look at the world before going to work. One 

 morning the earliest riser in our little colony was begin- 

 ning the day at half past nine. Of good size for a Crabro, 

 with a square determined-looking head and very direct 

 and business-like manners, she proceeded to cut out 

 a new chamber for provisioning. These chambers are 

 nothing more than enlargements of the long gallery, 

 such as are made in stems by related species. At ten 

 o'clock she departed on a hunting excursion among the 

 bushes on the bank above us, and came back in eight 

 minutes, carrying, much to our surprise, a white-winged 

 moth, which was clasped under the body by the second 

 and third pairs of legs, and was passed back to the third 

 pair as she alighted before entering. A moth is an inno- 

 vation, a delicacy new to the accepted idea of what a 

 Crabro larder, accustomed to Diptera, should contain. 

 A moment later she was off again, but this time did not 



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