500 



THE TOWER-BUILDING WASP. 



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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 develop- 

 ment 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 every- 

 thing 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 dar- 

 ing 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, centi- 

 pedes, 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 labor with perfect cheerfulness, unac- 

 quainted, 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, etc., 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 in- 

 sects, 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, how- 

 ever, 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 rep- 

 resented in the engraving. The nest is stocked with the larva? 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 prob- 

 ably 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 \Vasp lays its egg in the tunnel, and packs in it a 

 series of little green caterpillars, which serve as food for the larvae. W 7 hen 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 Odyncrus 

 muraria. Another species is also known to possess this curious faculty. 



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

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



