Solitary Bees and Wasps 



larvae emerge the mother wasp goes on a foraging ex- 

 pedition and returns with a small fly, with which she feeds 

 her progeny. Each time she leaves the nest she carefully 

 covers the entrance ; every time she returns with prey she 

 must perforce remove the covering. As the larvae grow 

 so do the flies supplied by the mother wasp increase in 

 size ; starting with the most minute flies, she so orders 

 her household that the final larvae meals shall consist of 

 plump gadflies. She feeds her young exactly after the 

 manner of a bird, with the added labour of filling up the 

 entrance to her nest over and over again. 



A straightforward recital of the ingenious nesting habits 

 of the solitary wasps conveys no idea of the dangers they 

 encounter in their hunt for prey. Crickets and locusts, 

 which some of them attack, are provided with very strong 

 hind legs, and active withal, so that a false move on the 

 part' of the wasp would afford the victim a chance to 

 disembowel its enemy a chance that would not be 

 allowed to pass. Certain solitary wasps prey upon spiders 

 much larger than themselves, and spiders possess cruel 

 poison fangs which they do not hesitate to use. Is it 

 surprising, then, to learn that the wasps engage in sham 

 fights with one another, to keep in training for their 

 encounters with the spiders ? Mr Latter thus describes 

 one of these sparring matches : " Frequently two females 

 note this is no love dance, for both are females may 

 be seen to settle down face to face on a patch of sand, to 

 move round and round as though searching for an oppor- 

 tunity, to lean over first on one and then on the other 

 side, and from time to time to lash round with their 

 wonderfully flexible abdomens as though delivering a 

 stab from the venomous sting. 



" In their actual encounters with the spiders it behoves 

 them ever to face the enemy, for the poison fangs of the 

 spider are situated at the head end, and it is thus from 

 that quarter that danger threatens. The wasp, on the 

 contrary, carries her weapon at the tip of her tail, and 



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