THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



125 



Indian in the great evoi'-recurring struggle for 

 superiority on the Continent of America. 



This curious propensity to roll balls of dung 

 to a considerable distance was observed, tliou- 

 sands of years ago, with mj'stcrious awe by llic 

 ancient Egyptians and by the ancient Greeks, 

 and all sorts of superstitious and transcendental 

 notions were founded thereupon. But up to the 

 present day, no one has satisfactorily explained 

 the phenomenon. Verily, under every stone, 

 under every clod, and even under such despised 

 substances as it almost olieiids the fastidious car 

 to name, tlicre lies a whole volume of Natural 

 History written by the finger of the great (loiti- 

 mon Father of us a^.l. 



It is always in the order Hjimenoptera (Bees, 

 Wasps, Ants, Ichneumon-flies, &c.), that we 

 must look for the most exalted and widely spread 

 developments of the instinct of insects. Among 

 the Beetles (oi-der Colcopteru) we find but a 

 single genus, tiie Tumble-dungs, that remove the 

 food of their future larva; to a- considerable dis- 

 tance from its natural locality ; and this, too, 

 they effect with their legs, and not with their 

 wings. Yet they have fully developed wings, 

 and, on a hot summer's day, fly with the great- 

 est vigor; and b\- sub-dividing the dung-pellet 

 into small poi-tions, and carrying them one after 

 another through the air to a suitable spot, they 

 could cfl'ect in live minute? as much work as 

 they now effect in five hours. Among the Jly- 

 menoptcru, on the other hand, we find whole 

 hosts of groups, namely our friends tlie Digger- 

 Wasps, that do every day what, with all his 

 wonderful intelligeuce, the Tuniblc-duiig or 

 "Sacred Bci^tle " of the Egyptians, has never 

 yet been able (o accomplish. Taughl by the 

 mysterious promptings of nature, llic female 

 Digger AVasps first of all fly round diligently 

 till they have found a suitable spol, and then 

 having found il proceed to construct a nest for 

 that future offspiing of theirs which they are 

 destined never lo lichold; some of tliem for this 

 purpose lioring holes in timber, some excavating 

 the stem of a dead weed, Init the gjeater portion 

 of them forming holes in the level ground or in 

 clayey banks. The house is now buill. It re- 

 mains to furnish it with food, as well as lodging 

 for the young larva that is soon to come into the 

 world. For Ihis purpose the wings of the fe- 

 male are again called into requisition; for we 

 are almost ashamed to say that in the case of 

 these Digger Wasps, as with nearly all other in- 

 sects, it is the female only that works, the male 

 being an idle gentleman who occupies his time 

 entirely with sipping honey and pollen and gal- 

 lanting the ladies. I'lying forth among the trees 



and bushes, and eagerly scanning the hidden 

 recesses of the most tangled herbage, the female 

 Digger Wasp soon discovers a specimen of the 

 particular kind or kinds of insect or spider, 

 wliich it is the habit of the species to which she 

 belongs to select. Seizing it and pricking it 

 with her sting just sufficiently to paralyze it for 

 ever, but not so as to deprive it of life, she then 

 flies oflT with it in triumph to the already con- 

 structed nest, and returns for additional speci- 

 mens, till she has accumulated a sufficient supply 

 of meat to feed one of her own larvaj to matur- 

 ity. She next deposits a single egg among the 

 still living but paralyzed animals that she lias 

 collected, seals up the mouth of her nest or cell, 

 usually with earth or tempered clay or fragments 

 of wood, and is ofT once more to build and pro- 

 vision new nests and repeat the same process 

 over and over again, until her stock of eggs is 

 exhausted. The larv;e that afterwards hatch out 

 from these eggs are in every case soft legless 

 v.'hitish maggots, with a somewhat horny head 

 and a strong pair of jaws, but no other weapons 

 whatever, whether ofiensive or defensive. Yet, 

 strange to relate, they live at their ease among 

 the prey collected for them by maternal fore- 

 thought; and this prey is often a lot of bees 

 that, if in full vigor, would sting them lo death 

 in a moment, or a mass of ravenous spiders that, 

 but for the falal poison infused into their vitals, 

 would like no better sport than to gobble ihnw 

 up at a single mouthful. 



"But," it will be asked, " why this unneces- 

 sary cruelty? Why not at once sting the poor 

 bees or caterpillars or spiders to death, and put 

 them out of their misery?" The answ'er is, that 

 (he larval of these Digger Wasps live several 

 Weeks before they are full-fed and ready to form 

 (heir cocoons ; (hat during all this period they 

 re(juirc fro>h meat; that the time of the year 

 when these opei'atibns take place is during the 

 Ileal s of the summer; and that, throughout that 

 season, insects or spiders that were stung to 

 "Icath would putrify and become unfit for food 

 iu a single week. There are seldom any mis- 

 lakes in Nature. The Pov/cr that created the 

 Digger Wasp knew what kind of food its larva 

 re(juired ; and — whether by direct or indirect 

 means it matters not — He has so organized 

 (he mother-insect, that she is enabled and im- 

 pelled to provide for her offspring the right kind 

 of food, in the right quantity, at the right time, 

 and in the right place. With a vast apparatus 

 of steam-boilers and hermetically sealed cans, 

 man has at length succeeded in preserving meat, 

 fresh and untainted, for an indefinite time. 

 With nothing but her good, sharp sting and her 



