CHAPTER V 



PARALYZED PROVENDER 



IN the black chambers of a solitary wasp's nest lie six growing 

 youngsters. They are grayish, maggot-like creatures, each con- 

 sisting of twelve rings or segments surmounted by a more or 

 less bony or chitinous head that in turn supports a pair of sharp 

 incurved mandibles. Their bodies are plump and pudgy; they 

 possess no adequate appendages for locomotion and in the light their 

 skins glisten, as if moistened with liquid. 



Each will eventually become a wasp, an active dominant creature 

 with a delicate taste for nectar. But that is far off in the insect 

 future, perhaps some forty days hence. They are concerned now 

 only with the meals that are set before them, spiders that the parent 

 wasp has selected as dainty provender. 



In each cell of the nest the mother insect deposits her bowed egg 

 among the mass of spiders that are paralyzed by her sting. She 

 hunts them abroad in the forest or among the fallen leaves in the 

 sunny trails, discovers their hiding-place and swoops hawk-like upon 

 the unfortunates. There is a struggle, perhaps, a short one; the 

 wasp's sting soon finds its mark, plunges home, and in an instant the 

 spider lies limply upon its threshold. The victim is not dead, in- 

 stead it is only plunged into a state of paralysis that instantly binds 

 the muscles fast. It cannot move again in self-defense, cannot com- 

 mand the power of its legs. It is still a living thing unconscious 

 of life. Thus, slightly quivering from the shock and poison, it is 

 borne to the victor's nest, deposited roughly in a cell with several 



other equally unfortunate ones, sealed forever from the light of day 



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