72 INSECT BEHAVIOR 



to close the cell with a seal that cannot be easily broken. The job 

 must be done with care, and quickly. A flaw, ever so tiny, in the 

 masonry, may jeopardize the helpless inmates. Wasplets are tender 

 morsels, fine fare for many a parasite. The huntress must guard the 

 results of her labor. I watched this interesting process, which re- 

 quired an hour from the time the spider was dragged into the cell. 

 It was only a tiny doorway, ten millimeters in diameter, yet during 

 those sixty minutes, thirty loads of clay were brought to the nest and 

 packed with minute care into the entrance. The tiny trowel and 

 scraper, the tamper and smoother, all combined in the tip of her 

 energetic little body, must have been worn indeed when the task was 

 finished. But there was no sign of fatigue. In fact, I believe she 

 rejoiced at the close of a day, well spent in the interests of her race, 

 without a thought for her own spent body, for such is the great spirit, 

 altruistic even though unconscious, that rules the insect world. 



The last cell provisioned and sealed, the wasp abandons her nest. 

 She deserves a rest and a feast of nectar. Henceforth, nature will 

 take charge of her offspring that she may spend her declining days 

 unburdened. 



Within the cell, the egg hatches in forty-eight hours. In place of 

 the tiny albumen filled projectile, we have a soft white grub. It is 

 footless and quite unfitted for anything but the consumption of food. 

 It possesses no sting like the parent huntress, and could not compete 

 in battle with the most primitive insect, yet it feeds, immune from 

 danger, upon the spider that lies limply within the cell. Like a 

 foundling, the wasp in its infant state is reared by a foster parent. 

 Like the child, it lives only upon liquids, drawing them from the 

 huge bosom of its spider wet-nurse. As the draining goes on the 

 spider's body shrivels accordingly. In forty-eight hours the pap is 

 exhausted, but now the grub is strong enough to partake of solid food. 



