298 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



and gnaws loose little fragments of wood 

 and grinds them by means of her jaws, add- 

 ing saliva until she has a genuine paper 

 pulp, of which indeed her ancestors were 

 the inventors. Of this material she makes 

 a comb like that in which a bee stores 

 honey. But whereas a bee makes level 

 rooms in an upright comb, the wasp makes 

 a level comb with upright rooms. Perhaps 

 we had better call them downright, for 

 the entrance to each room is on the under 

 side, and the suite of apartments hangs by a 

 strand of paper from the limb of a tree. In 

 each room she puts an egg and enough 

 food for the baby wasp to eat when the egg 

 hatches. When she has done this, she 

 builds a paper roof which at first only shel- 

 ters, but later is brought down over the sides 

 until it completely surrounds, the comb. 

 By this time her first batch, of perhaps fifty 

 children, makes its appearance. She put 

 them immediately to work. Most of them 

 are ill-developed daughters who devote 

 themselves to the more menial household 

 duties. Indeed, they are maiden ladies 



