POTENT PERSONALITIES -WASPS AND HORNETS 



69 



One would think that a hornets' nest 

 would be free from intruders. But this is 

 not the case. The existence of a worker 

 caste which feeds the queen provides a new 

 temptation for lazy and unscrupulous rela- 

 tives. Slavery appears. 



Perhaps slavery is too harsh a term. Let 

 us say that certain unethical young ladies 

 succeed in adopting for their own benefit 

 the swarms of worker nursemaids attendant 

 upon a matron more advanced in age. 



As an example of such conduct, take a 

 small hornet that lives wholly at the ex- 

 pense — and to the detriment — of the little 

 yellow jackets, whose nests are all too com- 

 mon in our fields in summer. 



This lazy, sponging relative, Vespula arc- 

 tica (Plate V, figure 5) has no worker caste 

 — only males and fertile females. The over- 

 wintering females probably appear later in 

 the spring than the female yellow jackets, 

 emerging from hibernation after the latter's 

 nests have been established. 



Entering the yellow jackets' nests, they 

 induce, or force, the yellow-jacket workers 

 to raise their progeny instead of the young 

 of the rightful queen, their mother. Both 

 the intruder and the true queen may live 

 in the nest together, or the intruder may be 

 found alone. 



I do not like to appear unsympathetic, 

 but it is difficult to suppress a feeling of 

 admiration for an insect so very clever and 

 persuasive as to be able to make nursemaids 

 for its babies out of a nestful of yellow 

 jackets ! 



Besides their lazy relatives, hornets have 

 other sorts of enemies. Among these is 

 a puny little ichneumon fly, Sphecophaga 

 hurra (Plate V, upper, extreme right), the 

 young of which live within the bodies of 

 their grubs, including those of the for- 

 midable white-faced hornet. 



PAPER WASPS CHIRP AS THEY WORK 



As familiar as the hornets are the com- 

 mon paper wasps, of several different kinds, 

 that build their combs exposed, without any 

 protecting envelope, usually in sheltered sit- 

 uations and commonly about houses (Plate 

 V, lower, and page 66). 



In contrast to the hornets, the workers 

 of these paper wasps scarcely differ from 

 the queens. If you observe them carefully 

 you will notice that they have a way of 

 chirping cheerfully while at work. This is 

 also true of many, if not most, other wasps. 



The plate shows a portion of the privet 



hedge outside my office window. Mr. 

 ]Murayama and I spent some time watching 

 the wasps hawking back and forth along 

 the hedge and in and out among the 

 branches, searching for insects. 



Our native paper wasps are unaggressive, 

 and their nests are usually placed where 

 there is no danger of hitting them. So they 

 are not likely to sting vou. Hence they are 

 much less unpopular than hornets. 



FLOOD CONTROL AND AIR CONDITIONING 



Interesting creatures are these paper 

 wasps. For instance, tiood control is one 

 of their specialties. When a nest is built 

 so that it is exposed to the weather it is 

 naturally likely to get wet. Undaunted, 

 the wasps lap up the water and then re- 

 gurgitate it away from the nest. 



Mr. Phil Rau has discovered a still more 

 remarkable fact. In times of drought the 

 workers bring water and drench the nest, 

 in this way cooling it and providing needed 

 moisture for the young. Air-conditioned 

 nurseries, therefore, are no new invention. 



Paper wasps used windows untold cen- 

 turies before man ever thought of them. 

 Some tropical kinds under certain conditions 

 insert in the outer covering of the nest small 

 transparent specks, apparently of mica, up 

 to an eighth of an inch across. These are 

 evenly distributed over the paper sheet, 

 each one being framed in a mouthful of 

 pulp. 



Mr. Rau found one nest with approxi- 

 mately one-third of the surface translucent, 

 and another with about half the surface 

 made up of these particles. 



MY FRIENDS THE HALICTUS 



Like the burrowing wasps, many of the 

 daintiest and prettiest of our smaller bees 

 are true children of the soil. One of these, 

 Halictus pruinosiis, is a special friend of 

 mine, for I have a little village of them 

 right in my front yard. 



Here in bare spots in the grass comical 

 little faces peer at you. Each face serves 

 as a stopper for a burrow in which resides 

 a growing family of bees (Plate VII, upper) . 



These pretty bees are very satisfactory 

 neighbors. Though many times, in weed- 

 ing and other operations, I fear I have 

 treated them most thoughtlessly, they have 

 never stung me. 



They are suspicious little creatures and 

 always keep a guard, usually a male, whose 

 face almost completely fills the doorway. 



