PREFACE 



The present volume em- 

 bodies the results of four 

 years of out-of-door study 

 of some of our most in- 

 teresting and highly de- 

 veloped insects, in their 

 native haunts, while pur- 

 suing their occupations in 

 their own way. Biological 

 and behavior work on the Amer- 

 ican wasps has been, for the most 

 part, desultory and incomplete, and 

 we hope that these chapters may, in their small 

 way, fill the gap that exists. 



We have no apology to make for the fre- 

 quent use of anthropomorphic ideas, terms and 

 interpretations. However, one must not read 

 into these terms any subtle metaphysical mean- 

 ing. They are used as apt descriptive ex- 

 pressions, and not for the purpose of predi- 

 cating logical thinking to these creatures. 



This work as a whole is descriptive; the 

 comparative and philosophical, as well as the 

 correlative, data have been reserved for a later volume. 



Unless otherwise stated, all of the observations were made 

 at St. Louis or within a radius of thirty miles of that city. 

 The sketches for the illustrations were made in the field and 

 executed in their final form by Dr. Gustave Dahms. 



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