THE ORIGINAL PAPER-MAKERS 97 



many nests in the neighborhood, and even now is used year after year 

 by insects of this family. 



The tiny particles of wood fiber are mixed by the wasp with a 

 glutinous substance, which is apparently secreted by the worker her- 

 self. She rolls the whole mass between her forefeet and masticates 

 it with her mandibles, until a small gray pellet has been formed, and 

 with this she flies to the nest. The pellet is then dropped in the 

 proper place and left until a portion of it adheres to the edge of the 

 cell in course of construction. When this has been accomplished, the 

 insect draws the pulp from a ball or pellet, into a long thin line, to the 

 opposite side of the nest. From here she returns to the starting point 

 and, placing her tong-like jaws over the paper thread, closes them 

 and simply walks slowly backwards away from the point of contact, 

 thus flattening it out into a long gray ribbon, which is easily shaped 

 in the form of a low hexagonal cell. 



In this manner several layers of paper ribbon are applied, each 

 layer above the other, until the cell is of proper depth. It is then 

 ready for the delicate white egg which the queen lays, almost at its 

 very bottom. The egg is fastened to the paper wall by a glutinous 

 substance, which is probably the same secretion that is used in making 

 the paper, and it is almost impossible to remove it, without leaving 

 a portion of its tender shell adhering to the inner wall of the cell. 



In the course of a few days the eggs hatch out into soft footless 

 maggots, like all young Hymenoptera, and it is at this period of their 

 lives that they are subject to the attacks of a very curious beetle para- 

 site, known as the Xenos. The young of this insect is a tiny active 

 creature which burrows into the body of the young wasp. There it 

 lives, feeding upon the body of its host during its hypermetamorpho- 

 sis. If it is to be a male, it transforms into a chrysalis and soon after 

 this hatches out from the body of the wasp to live its short adult life, 

 which lasts from fifteen minutes to three days. If a female, however, 



