500 THE TOWER-BUILDING WASP. 



As soon as they gain sufficient strength, they fly upward into the air, where they seek 

 their mates and soon descend to earth. The males, having now nothing to do, speedily die, 

 as they ought, but the females begin to make provision for their future households. Their 

 first proceeding is a rather startling one, being the rejection of the wings which had so lately 

 borne them through the air. This object is achieved by pressing the ends of the wings 

 against the ground, and then forcing them suddenly downwards. The wing then snaps off at 

 the joint, and the creature thus reduced to the wingless state of a worker, is seized upon 

 and conveyed to a suitable spot, where she begins to supply a vast quantity of eggs. 

 These are carefully conveyed away and nurtured until they burst forth into the three 

 states of male, female, and neuter, the precise method by which the development is 

 arrested so as to produce the neuter condition not being very accurately known. 



The remaining three figures on the illustration represent different species of Ants, the 

 two larger species being natives of Brazil. In the tropics, the Ants are alternately curses 

 and blessings to the inhabitants. They are terribly destructive, they eat everything softer 

 than stone or metal, they swarm in houses, on the plains, and in woods, and occasionally 

 they march in vast armies, taking a line as direct as the old Roman roads, and not to be 

 stopped by any less obstacle than a river. They pass through houses, and at their 

 approach all the human inhabitants vacate the premises, none daring to oppose so 

 redoubtable a foe. In this case, however, the visits of the Ants are greatly beneficial, for in 

 a very short time the column will have passed fairly through the house, and left no living 

 creature within its walls ; beetles, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, reptiles, and even the 

 rats and mice, being torn to pieces by their powerful jaws. 



In our own country they do little harm, except in houses, where they sometimes swarm 

 to an unpleasant extent. In gardens, too, they are often unpleasantly numerous, but can 

 be easily destroyed by pouring boiling water or naphtha into their tunnels. The RED ANT 

 is remarkable for being an English example of the slave-making insects. These creatures 

 invade the nests of the Brown Ant (Formica fuscus), carry off the pupae, and hatch them 

 in their own nests, where they labour with perfect cheerfulness, unacquainted, indeed, 

 with the fact that they are in captivity. The well-known WOOD ANT (Formica rufa) is a 

 very interesting insect, its large nest, composed externally of bits of hay, twigs, &c. being 

 fully as wonderful as the combs of the bees or wasps. If one of these nests be broken 

 into, the powerful acid smell of the formic acid secreted by the insects is strongly apparent ; 

 and if the hand be held within an inch or two of the insects, they will cover it with this 

 acid, the first feeling being something like the contact of a nettle, but the slight prickling 

 sensation going off in a few minutes. All their habits are very interesting, and well worth 

 examination. Through lack of space, however, we must now leave the Ants and proceed 

 to the next family. 



WE now come to the Wasps, in which the wings are folded throughout their entire 

 length when at rest. The left-hand figure in the illustration represents an Australian 

 example of the Solitary Wasps, many of which are found in England. The curious nest 

 of this insect is shown immediately above, suspended to a branch. The creature makes a 

 separate nest for each egg, the material being clay well worked and the shape as is 

 represented in the engraving. The nest is stocked with the larvae of moths or butterflies. 



To this family belongs that wonderful Burrowing Wasp, which is a builder as well as 

 an excavator, and which erects a tubular entrance, often more than an inch in height, with 

 the fragments of sand which it has dug from the tunnel. It is thought, and probably 

 with correctness, that the object of the insect in making this edifice is to deter its parasitic 

 foes from entering so long and dark a channel. The tube is always curved. When 

 the burrow is completed, the Wasp lays its egg in the tunnel, and packs in it a series of 

 little green caterpillars, which serve as food for the larva. When the arrangements are 

 completed, the Wasp takes down her tube, and employs the materials in closing the mouth 

 of the tunnel The technical name of this insect is Odynerus muraria. Another species 

 is also known to possess this curious faculty. 



The true Wasps, or Vespidse, come next in order. These insects are gregarious in 

 their habits, building nests in which a large, but uncertain number of young are reared. 



