APPLE LEAVES, APHIS ATTENDANTS — WASPS. 63 



mamlata, Linnaeus) is also frequently noticed iu the same situa- 

 tions. These insects are so much larger and more powerful than 

 the ants that the latter malce no attempts to drive them away 

 ^as they do most other intruders. They quietly stand aside and 

 permit the large wasp to pilfer from them what would serve as 

 a meal for a dozen of their own family. 



Other wasp-like insects, of a smaller size, pertaining to the* 

 family Crabronidje, seize and carry off the plant-lice. These 

 excavate holes in decaying posts, rails and similar situations, and 

 collect young spiders for food for their young, several of the spe- 

 cies gathering plant-lice for the same purpose. These they 

 enclose in the same cells in which they drop their eggs, the egg 

 being in the bottom of the cell, often attached to the end of the 

 abdomen of an aphis, that the young worm when it hatches may 

 find its food placed directly in contact with its mouth ; and the 

 exact quantity of food is put into each cell before it is sealed up, 

 which the worm will require for bringing it to maturity. But 

 the most astonishing trait in the instincts of these small wasps, is 

 their manner of preserving the spiders and other food which they 

 gather. The wasp is evidently aware that if it kills the spider or 

 aphis before packing it in its cell, it will become putrid and 

 unadapted for the nourishment of the worm before the latter will 

 hatch from the egg. On the other hand, if the young spiders are 

 enclosed in the cell alive and in full vigor, their incessant strug- 

 gles to escape from their prison will wound and destroy the egg 

 or the young tender worm which is in the same cell. How is the 

 wasp to proceed in this dilemma without salt or spices with 

 which to preserve from putrefaction the stock of provisions which 

 she amasses? Nature has furnished her with a resort for effecting 

 this, superior to any known to man for a like purpose ; and if 

 some chemist, taking the hint from these little insects, could 

 devise some analogous mode whereby we might preserve animal 

 food for weeks in all the perfection it has when newly slaugh- 

 tered, it would be a discovery conducive to human health and 

 comfort equal to any of the other great discoveries of this remark- 

 able age. The wasp on seizing her prey appears to sting it 

 slightly, injecting into the wound only so much venom as will 



