296 THE BRITISH NATURE BOOK 



The Pompilida make nests in banks, provisioning them with spiders which 

 they have paralyzed ; while the females of the Sphegidce, which are solitary 

 insects, hollow out long passages, at the end of which are three or four chambers, 

 in each of which an egg is laid and a store of food deposited. The food consists 

 of larvae, sometimes of crickets, beetles, and flies. These are first paralyzed 

 by stinging, and then patiently dragged to the nest. Here, outside, the 

 helpless insect is left, while the Sphex enters to reconnoitre. If all is well, 

 she takes her prey inside, four insects being placed in each chamber, which 

 is then sealed up. 



The true wasps (Vespidce) are recognized by the longitudinally folded 

 wings when at rest. 



The Solitary Wasps (sub-family, Eumenince), generally smaller and darker 

 than the Social wasps, have long narrow mandibles, and the tarsal claws are 

 toothed. They usually build single cells of clay or sand in a hole, which they 

 store with captured larvae and other insects. The Wall Wasp (Odynerus 

 parietum) is a well-known representative. 



The Hornet (Vespa crabro) is the largest of our British wasps, about I inch 

 long, brown or brownish red, with some yellow on head, abdomen, and legs. 

 It feeds on the sap of trees, fruit, honey (which it steals from hives, etc.), though 

 at times it is carnivorous as well, taking flies and other insects. The nest is 

 often in a hole in a tree, or a crevice in a wall, and is built of paper, made by the 

 insect from wood and bark. This is chewed into pulp by the wasp, and spread 

 out in thin layers to dry. 



There are males, females, and workers in a hornets' nest, some 200 in all, 

 of which the females and workers do all the work, being provided with powerful 

 stings. Several females or queens live in a nest. In winter all die except the 

 females, each of which begins her own nest in the spring. 



The Common Wasp (F. vulgaris) builds in the ground, but the Wood Wasp 

 (V. media) hangs her ball-shaped nest from a branch of a tree. The nests of 

 both vary very much in size. They feed on the juices of plants, fruits, nectar, 

 etc., as well as on insects and spiders, and even dead bodies. 



The community in each case starts with one female, which has survived 

 the winter. She makes a very small nest, with two or three cells, in which 

 eggs are laid. The larvae from these are fed by the mother wasp till they are 

 full-grown, when they act as workers and lighten her labours. 



It is quite possible to keep these insects under observation, and if a small 

 nest is found in spring and put into a box or case, it can be watched in 

 detail. I have had such a case suspended from the side of a shed, with a glass 

 panel at the back, so that it could be watched from the inside. 



As autumn approaches, females, and finally males, are hatched. These 

 leave the nest on a honeymoon flight, while the workers left at home, as winter 

 draws near, turn out the remaining larvae, and then gradually die themselves. 

 The queens each find some sheltered cranny or crevice where they hibernate 

 till next spring. 



