like a wasp ; but I can 

 readily imagine an or- 

 dinary wasp turning 

 green with envy at a 

 sight of the sting which 

 this specimen carries ; 

 the hornet's dagger 

 is an insignificant af- 

 fair beside it. 



Let us examine the 

 insect closely. It seems 

 to be standing on tip- 

 toe on the bark, with 

 wings upraised ; its 

 body is bent in an up- 

 ward arch, and seems en- 

 tangled in a double-twist- 

 ed loop of horse-hair. And 

 thereby hangs a tail, for it is 

 this singular loop that has 

 won the insect its well-deserved 

 name as the most wonderful 

 borer on record. 



If I were to exhibit to the 

 reader a piece of black horse-hair 

 about five inches in length, and 

 claim that it was a wonderful new 

 kind of gimlet which was capable 

 of boring a hole four inches deep 



into solid wood, would I be taken seriously? And if 

 so, how astounding would seem the assertion ! And 

 yet to all appearances such is the instrument and such 

 the actual feat accomplished by this black wasp-like in- 







