THE GOLD-BANDED PAPER-MAKER 159 



of food as soon as she was old enough to assume 

 such a responsibility. The same day a second 

 female emerged, so the Naturalist felt that he 

 would soon be relieved of his arduous task. It 

 is a hard job for a mere man to mother his own 

 offspring at a tender age, and when it comes 

 to feeding newly hatched wasps he is hardly 

 prepared to do full justice to the needs of the 

 infants. Within a few hours after the emer- 

 gence of the young wasps he caught a cutworm 

 and cut it up for the larvae as usual, but this 

 time he fed the bits to one of the elder sisters 

 to whom he was looking for expert assistance. 

 To his great joy, she took it and holding it 

 between her forelegs, kneaded it exactly as he 

 had seen her mother do so many times. After 

 the food had received suitable preparation she 

 fed one or two of the larvae. This action 

 within a few hours after her own emergence, 

 convinced the Naturalist that his troubles 

 were soon to end. However, he was doomed 

 to disappointment, for this proved an unusual 

 case. As others matured and the nest became 

 populous with adult females, he was greatly 

 disappointed to find that they not only would 

 not forage for their baby sisters, but only now 

 and then would they even take the trouble to 



