ken of winter, we are told, what larvae 

 and pupae remain are dragged out and 

 stung to death. 



Another papier-mache nest is one con- 

 structed from the same material by 

 a social, long-waisted wasp of the 

 genus Polistes. In the long prairie 

 grass of our prairie draws you shall 

 find the nests just sloping on top 

 sufficient to shed the rain, with 

 shallow cells open underneath. I have 

 examined a number in my own fields and 

 am certain the young — larvae — are fed 

 exclusively on insect food. The diffi- 

 culty in their investigation are the large, 

 long-waisted fellows, which are very bel- 

 ligerent. I have been stung a number of 

 tmes on the back of my hands in learn- 

 ing their lesson. But it pays, and that 

 richly. Nearly all wasps of my acquaint- 

 ance are fond of the codling moth, 

 which they must find by diligently 

 searching behind shagged bark, etc., -for 

 the moth is strictly nocturnal. 



The codling moth, it is estimated, 

 damages fruit to the value of $25,000,000 

 yearly in the United States. It lays 

 and glues its eggs to the apple or pear, 

 only one egg to an apple. As soon as it 

 is hatched the worm crawls to the blos- 

 som end and bores down to the core. If 

 the moth finds an egg on the apple it 

 passes it by and looks up one as yet un- 

 appropriated.- It is a four-winged gray 

 moth about half an inch long in the bodv. 

 The female lays about fifty eggs during 

 the season. The moth's front wings are 

 dark gray, with lighter mottles. The 

 after wings are fine striped, the stripes 

 converging towards the thorax, where 

 its six legs are. 



Some wasps are solitary in their hab- 

 its. One. a black, banded, medium-sized 

 wasp, delights in a ration of the white 

 grubs which infest our fields and straw- 

 berry gardens. Another, a long-waist, 

 commonly known as the Muddauber, 

 builds its clay tubes about dwellings of- 

 ten if unmolested. At the bottom of the 

 tube it lays an egg. On the top of .the 

 egg she deposits a bug or fly or plant 

 worm which she has paralyzed by a se- 

 cretion in her body which, while it ren- 



ders helpless the victim, does not destroy 

 its value for food. The worm as soon as 

 hatched commences on the insect next to 

 it and by the time it eats the last one it 

 is ready for the battle of life on its own 

 account. A, small black wasp utilizes 

 keyholes and crevices in doors in which 

 to build its "clay tenement." Murdfeldt, 

 a well known and careful entomologist, 

 relates that one of these wasps utilized 

 "some spools of thread standing on the 

 sill of an open window and built her 

 nests in the spindle-holes. As fast as she 

 filled a spool another was supplied and in 

 three days nine spools, averaging three 

 cells to a spool, had been completed. The 

 food stored for its larvae consisted of 

 various small caterpillars, including sev- 

 eral larvae (worms) of the codling moth 

 which had been stung with sufficient se- 

 verity to produce paralysis but not 

 death." The cells were but little more 

 than half an inch in depth, but into each 

 six or seven, and sometimes more, worms 

 were crowded, packed with more than 

 human skill. The young wasps thus well 

 fed appeared full fledged "in less than 

 two weeks." 



The wood wasps bore into wood and 

 into the pithy stalks of large weeds. As 

 a rule they feed their larvae with plant 

 lice. I have seen them on young apple 

 trees foraging for leaf-roller lice. It 

 takes a great number of such tiny lice 

 to provision a cell. You will see them, 

 if you are careful, at the roots of corn af- 

 ter the root lice, which you will also 

 find often infest the roots of the philo- 

 cactus in the window or greenhouse. 



It will be readily seen by the forego- 

 ing that all wasps are friends to the 

 farmer. The entire genus, from the egg 

 to the mature insect, live chiefly on the 

 insect pests which infest the farm. They 

 are beneficial when as mature wasps they 

 feed on the pollen and nectar of flowers, 

 for this is one of nature's methods of fer- 

 tilizing the seeds and fruits. To the 

 student of this branch of natural history 

 they are exceedingly interesting, more 

 so, taking all the species together, than 

 any other portion of the Hymer.optera. 

 Edward Bamford Heaton. 



