POTENT PERSONALITIES— WASPS AND 



HORNETS 



Though Often Painfully Stung;, Mankind Profits Im- 



measural)ly from the Pest-killing Acti\'ities 



of These Fiery Little Flyers 



By Austin H. Clark 



United Slates National Museum 



STINGS have a high educational value. 

 After one or two experiences with 

 these concealed weapons, the person- 

 ality of the little sting-wielders is firmly 

 impressed upon you. Thereafter you in- 

 stinctively avoid any creature that appears 

 to be a wasp or hornet. 



It is quite proper to regard the wasps and 

 hornets with respect, as they insist you 

 shall. But do not let their potent person- 

 alities prejudice you against them. For it 

 is within this group, taken in the broadest 

 sense, that we find the cleverest and most 

 ingenious of all the insects, as well as the 

 most efficient and destructive enemies of 

 our insect pests. 



The cleverness and ingenuity of wa.sps 

 take numerous forms. Each of the many 

 thousands of different kinds has its own 

 little specialty which differs more or less 

 from that of every other kind. Among 

 these specialties few are more fascinating 

 than those of the various digger wasps that 

 burrow in the ground and lay up in little 

 chambers food upon which their young 

 subsist. 



Let us look more closely into the habits 

 of some of our common digger wasps and 

 see what they are doing in that sultry sea- 

 son when we can think only of vacation, 

 for it is then that they display the greatest 

 energy. 



THE CICADA-KILLER IN ACTION 



Familiar to everyone in the hot, still, 

 midsummer days is the monotonous shrill 

 song of the cicada. Its aggravating quality 

 seems to emphasize the heat and make it 

 more depressing and debilitating. 



Once in a while one of these monotonous 

 trills stops suddenly. You hear a discord- 

 ant shriek that startles you for a moment. 

 Then all is the same again — the heat and 

 the interminable trills of the cicadas. 



What has happened? One of Nature's 

 little tragedies. A cicada has been sur- 



prised by a cicada-killer, has fled shrieking 

 away, and in all probability has been 

 caught and stung, not to death, but into a 

 state of complete helplessness. 



The cicada-killer is one of the largest and 

 most conspicuous, as well as one of the com- 

 monest, of our burrowing wasps. To many 

 people it is known as a hornet — in fact, the 

 hornet — and is much feared (Color Plate 

 III). But it is not at all aggressive. It 

 resents undue familiarity, of course, but its 

 nature is wholly peaceful — except when 

 cicadas are concerned. 



Cicadas are its only prey. Sometimes 

 you see it flying about a tree, hunting for 

 a victim up among the branches, or pur- 

 suing a cicada at high speed through the 

 air. But it is usually noticed dragging a 

 cicada, often much larger than itself, along 

 the ground on the way to its burrow. 



FOOD FOR A FUTURE GENERATION 



This nursery is commonly made in the 

 higher and drier portions of lawns or in 

 sloping grassy banks, and runs to a more or 

 less spherical cell about an inch and a half 

 in diameter ( Plate III, lower) . The finished 

 nursery usually includes four cells. 



After each cell is completed the mother 

 wasp goes on a hunting expedition. In 

 bringing the cicada to the cell she fre- 

 quently hoists her victim laboriously up a 

 tree, from which she flies diagonally down 

 toward her burrow. Thus she saves much 

 time and energy, for dragging a creature as 

 large as a cicada through the grass is a her- 

 culean task even for so powerful a wasp. 

 Usually, though not invariably, a second 

 cicada is added to the first. 



After the cicadas — still alive but help- 

 less — are stored safely in the underground 

 cell, the wasp places an egg on the bodv of 

 one of them just under one of the middle 

 legs, then closes the cell with earth. 



The egg hatches in three days, and the 

 grub feeds on the cicadas for a little over 



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