CHAPTER XXIII 



WASPS 



WASPS are perhaps the most generally feared and detested 

 of all insects. The painful effects of their sting and the unwel- 

 come attentions which they bestow upon our viands indoors and 

 upon our ripe fruit in the garden combine to bring them into 

 evil repute, more so than they really deserve. 



As in all insects, the body of the wasp is clearly divisible 

 into three main parts, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen ; 

 there being a distinct neck between the head and thorax, and 

 a waist between the thorax and abdomen. 1 Again, all insects, 

 at any rate when full grown, possess antennae on their heads, 

 three pairs of legs attached to the thorax, and, in most cases, 

 wings also ; moreover, the abdomen is plainly marked out into 

 segments (rings). 



By this combination of characters, then, it is possible to 

 distinguish between insects and other animals which in some 

 respects resemble them. For example, a spider is not an insect 

 because (i) it has no division (neck) between head and 

 thorax, (2) it has no antennae, (3) it has four pairs of legs, 

 (4) its abdomen is not segmented ; a centipede is not an 

 insect, because, although it possesses a neck and antennae, yet 

 it has no separation between thorax and abdomen, and has 

 many more legs than three pairs. But ants, bees, beetles, 

 bugs, butterflies, cockroaches, crickets, dragon-flies, flies, earwigs, 

 fleas, gnats, grasshoppers, and moths are all true insects, and 

 in the main arrangement of their bodies and limbs resemble the 

 wasp. 



x The name " insect " has reference to these " cuts into " the body, being derived 

 from the same Latin word as " section/' " dissect," " bisect," " vivisect," which all 

 convey the idea of " cutting." Similarly " entomology," or the study of insects, is 

 derived from the same Greek word as " anatomy," " epitome," " tome," in which the 

 same meaning is present. 





