THE SOLITARY WASP. 635 



many persons, though they have seen them, have believed them to be 

 really the objects which their popular name would infer. In truth, 

 however, they are simply the cocoons in which the insects are passing 

 their pupal state before emerging in their winged condition. It has 

 already been mentioned that only the perfect males and females pos- 

 sess wings. 



As soon as they gain sufficient strength they fly upward into the air, 

 where they seek their mates and soon descend to earth. The males, 

 having now nothing to do, speedily die, as they ought, but the females 

 begin to make provision for their future households. Their first pro- 

 ceeding is a rather startling one, being the rejection of the wings which 

 had so lately borne them through the air. This object is achieved by 

 pressing the ends of the wings against the ground and then forcing them 

 suddenly downward. The wing then snaps off at the joint, and the 

 creature, thus reduced to the wingless state of a worker, is seized 

 upon and conveyed to a suitable spot, where she begins to supply a 

 vast quantity of eggs. These are carefully conveyed away and nur- 

 tured until they burst forth into the three states of male, female, 

 and neuter, the precise method by which the development is ar- 

 rested so as to produce the neuter condition not being very accu- 

 rately known. 



The Eumenes arcuatus is an Australian example of the Solitary 

 Wasps, many of which are found in England. The curious nest of this 

 insect is suspended from a branch. The creature makes a separate nest 

 for each egg, the material being clay well worked. The nest is stocked 

 with larvae of moths or butterflies. 



The true Wasps, or Vespidse, are gregarious in their habits, building 

 nests in which a large but uncertain number of young are reared. The 

 common Wasp makes its nest within the ground, 

 sometimes taking advantage of the deserted hole 

 of a rat or mouse, and sometimes working for it- 

 self. The substance of which the nest is made 

 is a paper-like material, obtained by nibbling 

 woody fibres from decayed trees or bark and 

 kneading them to a paste between the jaws. 

 The general shape of the nest is globular, and 

 the walls are of considerable thickness, in order The Wasp ( Vespa vul- 

 to guard the cells from falling earth, a circular garis,. 



aperture being left, through which the inhabitants can enter or leave 

 their home. 



The cells are hexagonal, and laid tier above tier, each story being 

 supported by little pillars made of the same substance as the cells, and 

 all the open ends being downward, instead of laid horizontally, as is the 

 case with the bees. It will thus be seen that, on account of this arrange- 



