258 



INSECT LIFE. 



THE WASPS. 



Many kinds of wasps and wasplike insects can be 

 found on roadside flowers. The true wasps can be 

 distinguished from the wasplike insects by the fact 

 that when at rest they fold their wings lengthwise 

 like a fan. Collect specimens of true wasps. 



As with the bees, some of the true wasps are soli- 

 tary, while other species are social. 



The Solitary Wasps. — The different species of 

 solitary wasps vary greatly in habits. Some are min- 

 ers, digging tunnels in the earth ; some are carpenters, 

 cutting tubular nests in wood, and showing a mason's 

 skill by partitioning their tunnels off into cells with 

 mud ; while others are masons pure and simple, build- 

 ing oval or globular mud-nests, which they fasten to 

 twigs of trees, the sides of buildings, or to other ob- 

 jects. 



Fig. 231. — Eumenes fraternus and its nest. 



The solitary wasps constitute the family EuMENl- 

 D^ (Eu-men'i-dae). In this family the tibise of the mid- 

 dle legs bear a single terminal spur, and the tarsal 

 claws are armed with a tooth. A common represen- 



