THE VALIANT WASP 153 



seeks out the food-plant on which its presumably 

 forgotten larval days were spent, and so places the 

 eggs in the midst of the only suitable food for the 

 caterpillars. But higher still is the desire to see one's 

 children, and make babies of them by actively 

 tending them after their birth. That " noble wasp," 

 Momdula punctata, described by Mr. Hudson in 

 " The Naturalist in La Plata," advances a step in 

 this direction by capturing fresh flies and taking them 

 to its grub day by day till it grows up and spins its 

 cocoon. But the gap is great between even this 

 domestic insect and the species represented by our 

 pulp-gatherer on the cucumber-frame. 



In spite of a cold winter, queen- wasps have been 

 uncommonly numerous this year. We have found 

 and opened several nests, from the size of a cherry 

 up to that of a tennis-ball, and larger. The tiny 

 family of half a dozen grubs has grown to a village, 

 and the village to a town, with a population that 

 makes observation rather perilous. Besides, we like 

 best to watch the big and fussy queen training her 

 fierce jaws to stuff food into the tender jaws of her 

 soft, white progeny. The grubs seem to know her 

 hum, and crane their necks (if they can be said to 

 have necks) at her approach. We can imagine them 

 to be calling out like young birds. It is impossible 

 without analysis to identify the food that is being 

 given, so finely has it been masticated before being 

 "exhibited," but we are not inclined to take the 

 dictum of some writers who say that the diet changes 

 from sweets to flesh as the grubs grow. Sweets seem 

 to be the luxury of the grown wasp. It is when they 

 are hunting flies or caterpillars that the spoil is 



