Life Insurance for Wasps 



r 



or less life. The egg had not been laid by the 

 mother-wasp on one of these captives, as usual 

 elsewhere, but had been suspended by a gossa- 

 mer thread from the apex of the chamber. 

 When the grub hatches, it, too, hangs by a 

 thread, attached to a sort of ribbon, whence 

 it reaches down and takes a bite from one of 

 the caterpillars, which squirms under the in- 

 fliction. 



A mere stir is not attended to, but if the 

 half-benumbed worm is aroused enough to rear 

 its head and thrash about the grub pulls itself 

 up by the thread and glides into the " ribbon," 

 which is hollow (for, in fact, it is the aban- 

 doned egg-shell), and forms a refuge from the 

 fury of the paralyzed, but not wholly inert, 

 caterpillars. When it gets larger, the larva 

 drops down and feeds at will, regardless of the 

 writhing of its food. 



This wonderful system of insurance for the 

 benefit of their children, of which a great vari- 

 ety of further examples may easily be found 

 and studied during the summer all over the 

 United States, is the outcome of the growth 



