150 SCHOOL ENTOMOLOGY 



even under stones or in cavities in the ground. Hornets 

 and yellow-jackets are well known for the fighting pro- 

 pensities they display when their nests are disturbed and 

 for the effectiveness of their stings. They belong to the 

 genus Vespa. 



Solitary wasps belonging to this family have many 

 forms of nests. Some of the most interesting of these are 



FIG. 111. Underground Nest of Hornet (Vespa). 



made of mud arid atattached to twigs and to stems of 

 plants. They are shaped like miniature jugs and often 

 are almost perfect in their molding. Each contains a 

 single larva. Still other wasps have nesting habits like 

 some of the solitary bees, being miners, wood-borers or 

 carpenters, making nests of bits of vegetation and pieces 

 cut from leaves. Most solitary wasps feed on nectar 

 and pollen, but provision their nests with insects or feed 

 the young directly with other insects. The same is true 

 of the social wasps. 



