4° 



INSECTS. 



make short work of all her rivals. The function of the nurses, as their name 

 implies, is to rear the young, and, if necessary, preserve the queens. After the 

 males, or drones, have fulfilled their duties, they are massacred in thousands by 

 the workers ; even the young grubs and pupre being dragged from their cells and 

 killed. In many wasp - societies, these matters are, however, more leniently 

 arranged, since the* males usually assist in the general duties of the colony. Still 

 even these exhibit an unaccountable habit, all the grubs and pupae being dragged 

 out and slain as winter approaches. Whether the wasps themselves begin to experi- 

 ence the pinch of hunger, and wish to close mouths which must otherwise starve, 

 or what may be the motive for such action, is beyond our ability to guess. Since 

 every wasp, save here and there a large female, or queen, perishes at the approach 

 of winter, the massacre cannot be justified on the score of prudential social policy. 



Solitary Wasps and Mud- Wasps, — Families Mas arid jS and Eumenidje. 



The true wasps may be conveniently divided into solitary and social wasps, 

 although there is a more or less complete transition between the two. Of the typical 



MUD-WASPS. 



1, Odynerus parietum, female, with nest ; 2, Chrysis ignita ; 3, Pollstes gallica, female and nest. 



solitary wasps (Masaridce), which are mostly tropical forms, and constitute a link 

 between the parasitic wasps described above and the Vespidce, but little is known. 

 Some kinds are, however, parasitic, and possibly many may be so. On the other 

 hand, the Etimenidce are solitary wasps, which make their nests chiefly in mud- 

 walls or sandstone cliffs ; some constructing a series of mud-cells in the hollow 

 stems of plants, and supplying their grubs with caterpillars for food. A well- 

 known European example is the figured Odynerus parietv/m, a variable insect, 

 making its appearance in May and June. The nests are made in holes of old 

 mud-walls, or the banks of clay-pits, and are filled with grubs of beetles belonging 

 to the family Chrysomdidce, or with the caterpillars of small moths. 



Social Wasps, — Family Vespidae. 



The members of this group form a link between the foregoing and the true 

 bees, since each species includes a fertile female or queen, unfertile females or 



