RUBY WASP & GIANT-TAILED SAW-FLY 



yield Drones, but the Queen's eggs, when allowed to 

 be fertilised by her, produce Workers, or Queens, and 

 unfertilised eggs produce Drones. If food is scarce, 

 owing to a wet, or cold, season, or other causes, the 

 Drones are put to death, but in any case the latter are 

 either driven from home after Mid-Summer, or the 

 Workers nip off their wings. There may be a popula- 

 tion of as many as 40,000 to 50,000 inhabitants in a 

 thriving hive at the height of its prosperity. 



We now come to the Non-Stingers among these 

 insect-folk, and in the Group Chrysidce the Ruby Wasp 

 [Chrysis ignita^ Fig. 47) may here be mentioned. Al- 



fi^f vr Ruty Wocsp. 



though this insect is a non-stinger it can, as a matter 

 of fact, puncture the skin, but it does not inject poison 

 in the wound as with its stinging relatives which are 

 possessed of poison-fang as well as a stiletto. It is a 

 beautiful little insect, and may at once be identified by the 

 brilliant ruby-red abdomen which has a pronounced 

 metallic sheen. The inexperienced might well be excused 

 if possessed of the belief that the Giant-Tailed Saw-FIy 

 {Sirex gigas, Fig. 48) was capable of stinging, but this 



99 



