134 ARTICULATES: INSECTS. 



and in about five minutes she had completely closed 

 it. The second cell was soon finished, and sealed like 

 the first. Here is a sketch of them, 

 as they appeared before the second 

 was filled with spiders and closed. 

 One very large wasp, the Stizus, 

 an inch and a half long, and of a 

 black and yellow color, makes its 

 nest in the ground, and stores it 

 Fig. 258.-MuXwasp's with insccts. One of these, now 

 nest. in the Zoological Collection of 



Vassar College, was caught by S. M. Buckingham, Esq., 

 in his garden, while carrying into its hole the Dog-day 

 Cicada or Harvest-Fly, Figure 317. 



ANTS. 

 Ants live together in colonies, which are often very 

 large, and made up of males, females, and workers. 

 The workers have no wings, but the males and females 

 have wings, and the females have the power of throw- 

 ing them off. Some kinds of ants make their nests in 

 the ground ; others raise large ant-hills ; and others 

 live in stumps and trunks of trees. The workers have 

 the care of the nest and of rearing the young, they go 

 abroad in search of food, communicate 'with and assist 

 each other, feed the larvae, and take them into the sun- 

 shine in fair weather, and back again on the approach 

 of a storm, or at night, and watch over them earnestly 

 and faithfully. Ants are fond of sweet things, and 

 make pets of Aphides, or Plant-lice, — little insects 

 which live upon the juices of plants, and yield a honey- 

 like fluid. Some kinds of ants collect large numbers 

 of aphides and keep them that they may eat the sweets 



