The Wit of the Wild 



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the end a single cicada, as big as my lady's 

 thumb, with an egg safely tucked under its 

 thigh. 



This cicada is always buried alive, and re- 

 mains comatose until the wasp-grub it carries 

 hatches and begins to devour its vitals; and it 

 finally succumbs to this horrid vivisection. 



Another example of paralyzation stinging is 

 found among the potter-wasps, a common kind 

 of which in this country makes little jugs of 

 almost microscopic grains of quartz solidly 

 cemented by its own saliva. Like the graceful 

 [Ammophila, whose burrows are to be seen in 

 almost every garden, it invests in an insurance 

 in caterpillars, only in this case they must be 

 wee ones, for the jug is not so large as a 

 thimble and often is balanced upon a twig. 



The French entomologist, Fabre, disclosed 

 the very curious secrets of this race. With 

 great care he opened a window in the side of 

 the jug, so that with a magnifying glass he 

 could see what was going on. By repeated ob- 

 servations he thus discovered that it was half 

 full of caterpillars, all of which showed more 



