THE GOLD-BANDED PAPER-MAKER 147 



wrestling with it when the mother wasp re- 

 turned to the nest and took it away. After 

 kneading it for some time she ate it herself. 



The Naturalist then caught other mosquitos 

 and tried to feed to other larvae in similar 

 manner, but the mother wasp seized them and 

 bit them viciously and dropped them at once. 

 She became much agitated and flitted her 

 wings in a most nervous manner. Finally the 

 Naturalist fed such a bit to a larva without the 

 mother seeing it until the youngster had tried 

 for some time to dispose of it. Again she took 

 it and kneaded it for a time, but instead of eat- 

 ing it herself, as she did the first time, she fed 

 it to another larva, which swallowed it. 



Thus the Naturalist took lessons from the 

 mother wasp in feeding the babies, which were 

 destined to serve them well later in the season 

 when the mother had been lost. However, 

 this is getting ahead of the story. 



The Naturalist was anxious to see the 

 mother in the act of enlarging her nest. He 

 had seen her tear down part of some cells when 

 she was agitated, and could hear the cutting 

 of the paper with her sharp mandibles. After 

 kneading it a moment she had fed a larva a bit 

 of the paper, which it ate in apparent enjoy- 



