H 



CHAPTER VI 



THE FOREST SHELL- WASP 



Zethusculus hamatus Zav 



OW early one thing begins to support another in the jun- 

 gle! Even the infant, thread-like air root, new born from 

 the parent liana, sustains a spiral of fairy moss and later 

 a tiny emerald wasp's nest, fashioned from the ribbon 

 of the sporophyte. The great cool jungle reminds me of a jig-saw 

 puzzle, the pieces of which are its life, entwined and ingrown, each 

 using another for its own particular success and to complete its part 

 in the great green picture. A giant liana supported by a still greater 

 tree; thread-like offspring supported by the liana, fairy moss living 

 upon the thread-roots, wound in its turn into the hoop-like walls of 

 an insect nursery. Here at least are five fragments of the great puz- 

 zle we see fitted together. 



The nursery which belongs to the shell-wasp of the forest reminds 

 me of two algae-grown snails, one clinging to the slender stalk, the 

 other to its sister's tapering shell. In reality, the two shells are the 

 cells of the nest fashioned from the ribbon-moss which grows upon 

 the air-root. It is very delicate material. One must look sharply 

 in order to see that it is a thing separate from the mere thread that 

 supports it. Peeling off the ribbon, the wasp winds it into little 

 hoops, one upon the other, and cements it together with her own per- 

 sonal glue. The building material, when dry, is tough and quite 

 waterproof. Some twenty hoops, half a millimeter in width, com- 

 plete each cell, and the freshly made nest gives off an emerald sheen. 



53 



