CHAPTER X 



CAXXIBAL WASPS 



Philanthus gibbosus 



IN the glaring July sun, seething in a dizzy sea of rising heat 

 waves, the cannibal wasps have built their city. The tennis 

 court, but let us forget the human world, in the eyes of the in- 

 sects, is a great sandy plateau, dotted in a hundred places, with 

 tiny hills of sand that mark the excavations of their metropolis. 



It is a barren land where mud huts bleach in a sun that knows no 

 mercy and yet strangely enough, where the lives of its inhabitants are 

 filled with endless work and gigantic energy. 



If you can imagine a tropical climate without trees and where the 

 creatures that people it possess greater energy than those of a temper- 

 ate zone, then you will have a fair idea of the conditions existing in 

 the topsy-turvy land of the cannibal wasp. * 



The insects are gregarious, but a separate burrow, or mine, is con- 

 structed by each female belonging to the general colony. 



These tunnels are the homes of the wasps, mines in which the 

 domestic duties are carried on. They are excavated in various 

 fashions, twisting and turning according to the conditions of the 

 ground. In all, the burrows may reach twenty-four inches in length, 

 terminating in an elongated cell or chamber, twice the width of 

 the passage leading to it. One or two short branches, also terminating 

 into roomy chambers, may be found at various points near the end 

 of the shaft. These cells are nurseries where the young wasps 



are reared and of which we will hear more later. 



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