"WASPS' NESTS. 153 



If the ordinary social wasp queen described has to 

 perform double duty, that of the South American 

 polistes is triple. To quote a writer who has described 

 her manner of life : 



" The hard- worked mother has to engage in three 

 distinct labors — namely, the building of cells, the en- 

 largement of existing cells, and the nurture of the 

 larvae " ; for no sooner has she formed the third or 

 fourth cell than the eggs in the first and second have 

 been hatched and the larvse need to be fed. So the 

 mother insect, in addition to her labor as a house- 

 builder in constructing new cells, has to feed the 

 young in those already made. Soon, however, her 

 work increases; the grubs in the first two or three 

 cells enlarge so fast that it is not long before they out- 

 grow their rather confined quarters. The cells must 

 be widened to accommodate the increase in the size of 

 their tenants, and the tenants' appetites increase with 

 their size. Surely the poor queen must long for the 

 time when her daughters are sufficiently grown to 

 help her. 



The manner in which the pretty banded cells are 

 arranged is peculiar, and very decorative from an art- 

 ist's point of view. 



The other nest shows a beautiful group of radiat- 

 ing cells opening upward and very closely balanced 

 on a footstalk. Our American wasps have invented 

 an improvement on this nest, for the cells in theirs 

 open downward, and are of course not so apt to suffer 

 from sun and rain. 



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