♦ KNOV/LEDGE ♦ 



came to answer correctly. " Why," says 

 e same thing myself, and walked ' 

 ,s you, and you wanted my -■^'^— ^ 



s thinking of 



INDIAN WASPS AND HORNETS. 



[1913] — In my paper on Termites I did not include these Hymen- 

 optera among our pests, because we are so familiar with the first, 

 and generally find them so harmless, that we don't care for them. 



On the other hand, our contact with the terrible hornet is fortu- 

 nately so rare that we cannot class them as general pests. When 

 that contact does occur, an annus notaUlis is added to the calendar 

 of the individual, if he survives. 



Some years ago there was a controversy as to whether cell-build- 

 ing in hives and nests was centripetal or centrifugal. In a ruinous 

 outhouse at Peshawar, I was able, in 1879, to satisfy myself of the 

 latter; dependent from the roof, by a slender stalk, was the 

 KoUtary paper cell of a female wasp, and she was proudly and 

 tenderly overhauling its proportions with her anxious antennae ; 

 while from the base of each side of the hexagon was already sprout- 

 ing the germ of another cell, and so, under the fostering care of 

 that lonely and indefatigable architect, the fabric reached maturity 

 by diverging centrifugally from that focal cell. 



The familiar English wasp is not met with out here ; its place 

 being taken by the yellow hornet, which thoroughly domesticates 

 itself in our houses, and vevy very rarely assails, and then only in 

 self-defence; the verandahs, bath, and storerooms are favourite 

 attachments for the paper nests, which, when different families 

 combine, become very large structures. During the breeding- 

 season three or four males will secure points of vantage in your 

 study, especially in the bookcases, and there each individual will 

 take up a calling-spot ; resting on his hind legs, with his fore 

 elevated mantis-like, he keeps up a constant buzz, and surveys the 

 scene, his antennae moving anxiously in all directions. Woe betide 

 the rival male who dares to invade that calling-gronnd ! 



But hush ! here is a counter-buzz, recognised as female, and our 

 beau is frantic with blandishments ; he bows, stands on his hind 

 legs, sings entreatingly — 



" Won't yon come in my pretty, pretty maid ? " 

 while the lady approaches and retreats in true flirtish style ; havinjr 

 sufficiently agonised the beau, she settles, and immediately becoi 



the c 



•e of his I 



it agonismg a 



e licks her all ove 



!S her with his antennai, smoothes her wings, and ends by ferti 

 sing her. His function being completed, he dies. She re-appears as 

 that anxious and expectant mother in the Peshawar outhouse, and 

 prepares her cradle for approaching maternity, the material being 

 apparently semi-digested woody fibre. As each cell is completed, 

 she enters backwards, and lays an egg, then fills up the nest with 

 propolis, and arches it over with the same paper of which the coll 

 is constructed. 



This cell-bnilding and egg-laying goes on until her ovaries are ex- 

 Jiausted, and then she dies ; so that each egg will pass into a larva, 

 and that into a perfect insect without acquaintance or contact in any 

 shape with the parent insects. Other wasps build their nests of mud, 

 which yon see them collecting in pellets from any spot where water 

 lies — e.rj,, the drain of your bathroom, or the neighbourhood of a well. 

 These nests are only cylindrical tubes of various calibres, and with 

 no attempt at geoinetric form. Some of these structures are 

 plastered over with gum-arabic by their architects — why, I know 



A very troublesome wasp affects ready-made holes of every 

 description. In some localities, when the mosquito-curtain season 

 is over, you will invariably find the female screws in the bed-posts 

 utilised by these nuisances, the orifices being carefully plastered 

 over and then whitewashed ; or you may find the lock of a box or 

 drawer which has>i't been opened for a week similarly stuffed up 

 and whitewashed. 



The final touch of whitewash is very wonderful, and is probably 

 stolen from the walls. I say wonderful, because it is really a check 

 upon the too i-apid propagation of that particular species, for 

 wherever you see the n-hite mark, it is almost invariably attacked 

 by master or servant, and the laboriously-collected contents dis- 

 persed. 



But the most wonderful fact connected with these mud-building 

 wasps remains to bo told. We have seen that the common yellow 

 wasp stores up propolis in her paper cells ; not so the mason wasps, 

 who fill up their nest-tubes, each with a different species of cater- 

 pillar or spider, each victim being in some wonderful manner 

 anaesthetised and embalmed so as to afford livimj food to the 

 ,g grub. 



Her 



which V 



sudden appearance of a black, or very dark-brown, caterpillar 

 wasp draws our attention to its nest in the verandah, a sei 

 mud cells opening upwards. As she alights we notice that 



on the back of the anaesthetised caterpillar, holding it in the grasp 

 of all her legs. Quickly she manages to get the tail end of the 

 caterpillar (in this case one of those green loop-walking larva; of 

 some ourapteryx moth) into the cell, emitting the while a curious 

 hum, not alar, but thoracic or vocal, and then presses it in with 

 her feet. 



Flying away, she returns with a second loop-walker, which is 

 similarly treated, then with a third and fourth, and the cell is full. 

 It is then carefully plastered over, and a fresh one is begun. Eight 

 to ten cells are thus laboriously completed and provisioned, and 

 then that anxious and laborious mother yields up her life. 



Some wasps bring brown, others green, spiders to their ceUs. In 

 fact, each species sticks to its own caterpillar or spider — i.e., a 

 spider wasp will never bring in a caterpillar, and vice verei. This 

 I have established as an absolute fact. 



Having reached thus far, let us review our position. On the one 

 hand, the common yellow wasp builds her nest of paper, always of 

 the same colour (dull white) and material, deposits in each cell an 

 egg, fills up with propolis, and dies. Her offspring (taking one 

 individual) has never seen its mother, never before seen the cell 

 from which it emerges, can learn nothing from the outer world 

 as to the material of its ceil, nature of its food, or whence both are 

 procured ; yet it has no difficulty in procuring the proper kind of 

 food, nor, when the fit time arrives, has it any difficulty in pro- 

 curing the proper paper for its nest of cells, nor in moulding the 

 latter with mathematical precision equal to that of its parent. 



In like manner, on the other hand, the larvae in the mud cell of 

 this wasp-nest has never seen its parent, and beyond gorging on 

 them in the darkness of its prison, has had no knowledge whatever, 

 beyond their taste, of the green loop-walkers its mother has so 

 carefully collected for it. Yet, when its time comes, it constructs 

 a similar mud-nest to that of its parent, and stuffs it with similar 

 larvai, and no other. 



Now, who taught these wasps the wonderful machinery of their 

 cells, the astonishing processes of selecting particular kinds of 

 animal food for each kind of cell, and of keeping such food alive, but 

 anaisthetized, as long as it may be required ? 



The popular reply will be — instinct ; but that tells us nothing. 

 Why should a new-born wasp be better able to provide for itself 

 than, say, a puppy, or even a baby — animals far higher up in the 

 scale than itself ? 



By what process of development or natural selection has this 

 marvellous vespa been perfected ? for, mark, while it was deve- 

 loping, the loop-walker was undeveloping, i.e., it was having its 

 legs re-arranged, head and tailward, and from moving gracefully 

 and equally, it had to adopt painful and laborious contortions, and 

 thus become the fit and only food of a particular wasp. 



Now for the proper hornets. Two species of these terrible 

 insects are commonly met with, but fortunately both are com- 

 paratively rare. The lesser hornet is IJ in., and the greater 2 in. 

 long ; both species are brown, with a broad yellow band across the 

 abdomen ; both frequent unused buildings, tombs, and desolate 

 ravines ; the paper nests of the greater hornet are seen in the 

 firs and cedars of the Himalaya, and many a traveller has jeopar- 

 dised his life by foolishly firing at the nest. When attacked, your 

 only chance of life is to sit down at once and cover yourself with 

 a blanket. If you run, you are a dead man. Two cases in point. 

 In the end of 1883, my friend, Surgeon-Major E. Jackson, A.M.D., 

 in charge of the dep6t up here was attacked by the lesser hornet ; 

 losing his presence of mind, he threw off his coat and ran for his 

 life, which he lost in a few days by general blood-poisoning, having 

 been stung from head to foot. 



In 18G1 I was showing the Arrah House to some friends, and, to 

 get more light in one room, burst open a small window. In a 

 moment I felt an agonising stab in my left temple, and just recog- 

 nised my assailant as a greater hornet. Knowing what was 

 coming, I made for home (about 250 yards distance) and ammonia. 

 On reaching the threshold, I was paralysed, and couldn't move. 

 Violent tremor succeeded, in the midst of which I was able to ask 

 for a glass of port wine and swallow it. I was then laid on a 

 couch, the tremor gradually ceased, and I fell asleep, awaking 

 quite well, but in a profuse perspiration. A lump like half a 

 pigeon's egg remained on my temple for some davs. 



Pachmari, July 11, 1885. E. F. HuTtnixsON, M.D. 



ORGAN-PlPE'='. 



