THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



141 



lengtli, by means of its own front legs and stout 

 beak, while the end that contained the sting 

 was vainly beating the air away out ahead, and 

 the AsHns Fly was gradually sucking out the 

 vitals of the doomed insect with grim and silent 

 satisfaction. "We have also seen the same 

 skillful tactics often practiced by a small, robust 

 black and yellow bug, about one-third of an 

 inch long (P/n/maia erosa, Fabr.) — common 

 everywhere in the northern States, and found 

 even in the streets of New York City — which 

 haunts flowers, and preys habitually upon small 

 vbecs and wasps. On the other hand, when an 

 Jxihis Fly captures a common grasshopper, we 

 have remarked with astonishment, tnat it takes 

 no such precautions as the above, but holds the 

 grasshopper underneath its own body, belly to 

 belly, in such a way that it would be sure to get 

 stung if its prey had any sting at all. Evi- 

 dently these insects knov/ the difference 

 between a wasp and a grasshopper, and are well 

 aware that one has got a sting and the other 

 has not. And yet certain two-legged animals 

 without feathers, who do not know the differ- 

 ence between a bee and a beetle, and who could 

 not for the life of them hold a bee or a wasp in 

 their fingers for one second, without getting 

 badly stung, consider that all "Bugs,"' as they 

 are facetiously pleased to call them, have got no 

 sense at all, and are but little superior, in the 

 scale of the creation, to the herbs of the field 

 and the trees of the forest ! 



The insects commonly known as " Yellow- 

 jackets" in the United States belong to the same 

 genus ( Vespa) as the Bald-faced Hornet, and of 

 course like that species are social in their habits 

 and have the same general characteristics. "We 

 have a great many species of them in this country, 

 differing by slight but invariable peculiarities of 

 size shape and coloration, and there are two 

 (T^ vulc/aris and T'. germanica) wliich are sup- 

 posed by Saussure to be identical with European 

 species. We ourselves know but little of their 

 economy, save that all the species with which 

 we are acquainted build their nests under- 

 ground likcthe Common Wasp ( Yespa vulgaris), 

 of Europe, and none of them attach their nests 

 to trees, as do certain European species. As 

 wc should naturally expect, from their belong- 

 ing to the same genus, their nests are built upon 

 the same principle as those of their ally, the 

 Bald-faced Hornet. St. Fargeau records the 

 fact that — as we should anticipate from the 

 smoothness of their legs and the robustness of 

 their jaws {mandibles) — such European species 

 as burro w in the ground use their jaws. ,aud not 



their legs, in burrowing and in carrying out the 

 excavated material.* 



There is another genus of Social Wasps in 

 North America {Polisles), about as numerous in 

 species as that to which the Bald-faced Hornet 

 and the various kinds of Yellow-jackets belong, 

 and distinguishable at once from that genus by 

 l)eing much slenderer, and by having the first 

 segment of the abdomen separated by a slight 

 "constriction" from the second segment, as if 

 a thread had been tied tightly round the con- 

 necting suture. They build combs, precisely 

 similar to those of the Bald-faced Hornet, in 

 some spot partially sheltered from the weather, 

 but always without any paper envelope, and 

 usually with but a single comb to a nest. What 

 is very remarkable, and docs not appear to have 

 been hitherto .animadverted on by any author, 

 whether European or American, all known Eu- 

 ropean species construct these combs in a 

 vertical direction, like the honey - bee, 

 attaching them lateriiUy by their central 

 point to some weed or shrub or building. f 

 In Figure 112, /;, may be seen a sketch of such 



[b'ig- 11 



Colors— (a) rust-red; Qi) gniy. 



a European nest, copied from Westwood. On 

 the contrary, .all our American species seem, as 

 a rule, to build horizontal combs, just as does 

 our B.ald-fiiced Hornet, and all the European 

 wasps and hornets that belong to the same 

 genus as that insect. For example, the only 

 American species of which we have personally 

 observed the economy (P. ameriranus, Fabr.) 

 builds a horizontal comb ; in one case that 

 came under our notice suspending it from the 

 lintel of the doorway of an old ruinous house, 

 and in the other case elevating it on the upper 

 surface of the rail of a tight board fence. Thus, 

 by the way, it results that, with this particular 

 species, the cells must in one case have been 

 built with their mouths downwards, .and in the 

 other casje with their mouths upwards. Again, 

 eight years ago we became aware that a large spe- 



• Hymenopteres, I. pp. 488-9. 



t As authorities for this assertion we may quote Westwood 

 Introduction, II., p '252: St, Pargeau, Hymenopt I., p. 492. 



