140 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Wasps, the term "ueuters" must be abandoned, 

 as leading to utterly erroneous and untenable 

 ideas. 



"Witli all the Social Wasps, the males malie 

 their appearance only towards the autumn — say 

 the latter end of August and during- the mouth 

 of September in North Illinois — as we know 

 ourselves from long continued observations. 

 The same fact was long ago noticed in Europe 

 Avith regard to the species peculiar to that 

 countr)'. Shortly after the appearance of the 

 males the large individuals called queen-wasps, 

 which are destined to continue tlie race for an- 

 other season, come all at once into the world. 

 Copulation then takes place in the usual man- 

 ner; but as soon as the cold weather commences 

 the males and the workers all perish, while the 

 queen-wasps retii-e to some secure ajjot and pass 

 the winter in the torpid state, common at that 

 season with almost all insects. In the case of our 

 American Bald-faced Hornet, the queen-wasp 

 excavates for herself a cell under some very 

 rotten half-buried log, from which situation we 

 have repeatedly disinterred her, in good robust 

 vigorous health, in the early spring months. 

 As soon as spring opens she sallies forth from 

 her hiding-place, and each individual becomes 

 the founder of a distinct nest, rearing nothing 

 but workers at first, which, as -soon as they are 

 hatched out from their cells, unite with her in 

 carrying on the labor of the community. Later 

 in the season, the queen-wasps seldom, if ever, 

 are seen abroad, and probably confine them- 

 selves to the nest like the queen-bee. Thus, as 

 will be seen, every colony of Social AVas^js is 

 dissolved at the approach of winter, and every 

 colony in the succeeding year takes its origin 

 from a single female, that after being fertilizxd 

 has passed the winter in a torpid state. The 

 same rule holds good with the Humble-bees 

 {Bonibus). With the honey-bee, on the contrary, 

 and with the various species of Ants {Formica 

 family), there is no definite limit to the duration 

 of a colony, the entire brood of workers surviv- 

 ing through the rigors of winter. We recol- 

 lect disinterring in March a nest of one of our 

 commonest black ants {Mi/nnica liiteolata, Sa,y), 

 in which we found a mass of the workers clust- 

 ered together in around ball as big as a hen's egg, 

 and enclosing in the midst of them quite a num- 

 ber of their larvie, evidently with the view of 

 protecting their soft white delicate bodies from 

 the cold. 



The more usual food of our Bald-faced Hornet 

 seems to be the honey and pollen of flowers; 

 but we have repeatedly observed them catching 

 Two-winged Flies upon umbelliferous flowers, 



and chewing them up on the spot. Reasoning 

 from the analogy of the Digger Wasps, which 

 live themselves upon vegetable matter and rear 

 their larvas upon half-paralyzed insects and 

 spiders, we may infer that insects chewed up in 

 this manner are afterwards disgorged and fed 

 out to the young larvae in the nest at home ; but it 

 would be rather a difficult undertaking to prove 

 the fact by direct evidence. Some persons in 

 America have turned this insect-devouiuug 

 propensity of the Hornets to good purpose, by 

 suspending one of their nests in a house much 

 infested hy the common house-fly. In such a 

 situation, we have been told that they soon make 

 a clearance of the obnoxious flies; and so long- 

 as you do not meddle with them, they will not 

 meddle with you. But woe to any one who — as 

 we have sometimes ourselves accidentally done 

 in beating trees for insects — strikes against the 

 sacred home of the hitherto contented and 

 peaceful family! Better for him that he had 

 been subjected to the surgical process of acu- 

 puncture ! for the needles of the surgeon are not 

 envenomed, and the sting of the infuriated Hor- 

 net is bathed in liquid fire. 



In no case, as authors have observed, even 

 when, as in the instance of certain European 

 species, Social Wasps catch and devour honey- 

 bees, do they sting the insects that they catch, 

 after the fashion of the Digger Wasps, and of 

 such of the True Wasps as are solitary, and not 

 social in their habits.* The two latter groups 

 sting captured bees, not because they are afraid 

 of being stung in return by them, but in order 

 to make them lie quiet while the soft, white, 

 helpless larva of the wasp is eating slowly and 

 gradually into their vitals, perhaps three or 

 four weeks after their capture. The Social 

 Wasps, on the contrary, have no occasion to 

 follow this practice, for they feed their larvm 

 personally from day to day, until those larva; 

 have matured ; and therefore, they have no 

 occasion to lay up a store of living meat for 

 Iheir helpless offspring, in the manner already 

 described as practised by the Digger Wasps. 

 In fact, all insects that capture bees and wasi)s, 

 know perfectly well how to hold their prisoners 

 in such a position that the sting cannot be used 

 with effect. We have more than once seen one 

 of the gigantic, soft-bodied, buzzing, two- 

 y/inged Asilus flies (Order Diptera), that prey 

 so ravenousl}' on other insects, grasping a large 

 Social Wasp (PoUstes), or a good-sized Hum- 

 ble-bee by the head end, as if at arm's 



♦This assertion is coulirmed b)" St. Farti'cau, speaking of 

 European species, Htjmenopl, I, p, 481. 



