WASPS 



185 



depositing their eggs. A well-known species is the rose-cutter (Megachile centun- 

 cidaris), which is black with ashy-coloured hairs, the abdomen of the female being 

 almost heart-shaped, with reddish brown hairs beneath and almost white above, 

 while that of the male is nearly spherical, with the hindmost portion bent. This 

 bee cuts pieces out of leaves with great neatness, especially rose-leaves, the leaf so 

 treated being distinguishable by the perfection of the curve. 



Like honey-bees, the social wasps (VesphdcB) develop males, fertile 

 females or queens, and also workers, which, like the females, gnaw 

 wood, and work it up with their sticky saliva into the consistency of blotting-paper 

 for use in building the nests. Of the inmates of these nests only the fertile 



Social Wasps. 



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females hibernate, and these in sheltered places. In the spring, by way of founding 

 the nest, they build a few cells and lay an egg in each ; the workers hatched 

 from these eggs immediately resume the building, and provide the larvae from 

 subsequent eggs with food, whilst the female simply devotes herself to reproductive 

 functions, although she lays no eggs from which males develop until the autumn. 

 The longer the summer lasts, the larger the nest becomes; but unfavourable 

 weather soon checks its enlargement, although to protect it from rain the entrance 

 is always underneath. Wasps prey on insects ; and when hurrying off with a fly, 

 and impeded by the wind, set matters right by biting oft' its wings. They also 

 feed on flesh and fruit, and are fond of jam and other sweets. They only use the 

 poisoned sting in the warm season, and never against man unless provoked. Only 

 the queen and workers have a sting, the males being defenceless. 



