POTENT PERSONALITIES-WASPS AND HORNETS 



55 



Loving and in- 

 dulgent mothers 

 are by no means 

 rare among these 

 canny insects. 

 Although most of 

 them, after pro- 

 visioning their 

 cells, seal them 

 up and show no 

 further interest in 

 them, some tend 

 their young 

 bringing them 

 food from time to 

 time as do the 

 birds. 



Thus the wasp 

 called Bembix — 

 the sand wasp — 

 makes a burrow 

 in the ground, 

 stores a fly in it, 

 and lays an egg 

 upon the fly. The 

 little grub is fed 

 first with small 

 flies and then 

 with larger ones, 

 until it is fully 

 grown and ready 

 to transform to 

 the pupal stage. 



These Bembix, 

 which usually 

 live in large com- 

 munities, are 

 quite unethical, 

 much given to 

 stealing each 

 other's flies at 

 every opportu- 

 nity. 



Though as neighbors thev leave much 

 to be desired, as successful mothers the 

 Bembix have few, if any, equals in the 

 animal world. During her ten to twelve 

 weeks' activity as a full-fledged wasp, a 

 mother Bembix can raise at most only five 

 or six young. And yet these wasps are 

 common. 



It is about the same with the other digger 

 wasps. The number of young produced is 

 very small. They are so well taken care of, 

 however, that relatively few are lost, and 

 the race prospers. 



In providing for the welfare of their 



A BUSY LITTLE MASON PATCHES 



Photograph by Paul Gri.swold Howes 

 HER HOME OF CLAY 



In the world of wasps, masonry is an ancient art. This pipe-organ wasp 

 (Trypoxylon fabricator) uses clay so expertly that the cells of the nest, though 

 as thin as paper, are tough enough to shed rain and hold together in the extreme 

 weather of the Tropics, (Greatly enlarged.) 



young, some mother wasps seem to show 

 almost reckless bravery. This is true, 

 for instance, of the tarantula hawks of 

 the Southwest — fearsome-looking steel-blue 

 wasps, some of which equal in size, and all 

 of them in ferocity, the cicada-killer. 



TARANTULA HAWKS ON THE HUNT 



But tarantula hawks are far more alert 

 and canny. They have to be, because the 

 huge spiders with which they must deal 

 are powerful, resourceful, and armed with 

 formidable fangs — very different from the 

 clumsy and defenseless cicadas. 



