THE FIRST PAPER-MAKER 



'73 



of a scrape. These two last attitudes are, of course, 

 alternate. One shows the jaws opened, the other 

 closed, as they look at the beginning and end of 

 each forward and backward movement. You will 

 notice also that, as usual, the insect's jaws work 

 sideways, not up and down like those of man and 

 other higher animals. If you examine closely this 

 series of wasp's heads in different postures, you 

 will see how well the various parts are adapted, 

 not only for rasping and manu- 

 facturing paper, but also for 

 the more delicate work of wall 

 and cell building. 



Almost as interesting as the 

 head are the wings of wasps, 

 of which there are four, as in 

 most other insects. But they 

 have this curious peculiarity : 

 the two front wings have a 

 crease down the middle, so that 

 they can be folded up length- 

 wise, like two segments or rays 

 of a fan, and thus occupy only 

 half the space on the body that they would other- 

 wise do. It is this odd device that makes the 

 transparent and gauzy wings so relatively incon- 

 spicuous when the insect is at rest, and the same 

 cause contributes also to the display of the hand- 

 some black-and-yellow-striped body. No. 1 2 shows 

 us a queen with her wings folded : below is one 

 upper or front wing, folded over on itself, and then 

 laid across the under wing. No. 13 introduces us 



NO. 12. QUEEN WITH 

 FOLUEU WINGS, AND 

 ONE WING TO SHOW 

 FOLDING. 



