WASPS. 545 
peculiarly the case with the bees, the great bulk of their numbers is com- 
posed of workers, or neuters, which are destined to perform the constant 
labours needful to regulate so large a community. The perfect insects of 
either sex take no part in the daily tasks, their sole object being to ke p up 
the numb.rs of the establishment. In the Ants, moreover, the neuters are 
without wings, and even the perfect insects only retain these organs for a 
brief period of their existence. 
Everyone has heard of the objects called “ants’ eggs,” which are so 
stronzly recommended as food for the nightingale and other birds ; and many 
persons, though they have seen them, have believed them really to be the 
objects which their popular name would infer. In truth, however, they are 
simply t € cocouns, in which the insects are passing their pupal state before 
emerging in their winged condition. It has been already mentioned that 
only tne perfect males and females possess wings. 
As soon as they gain sufficient strength, they tly upward into the air, where 
they seek their mates, and soon descend to earth. ‘The males, having nov 
XQ we SS. 
aS = yd Chaka 
She MAW 
Lumenes arcuatus. 
nothing to do, speedily die, as they ought, but the females begin to make 
provision for their future households. Their first proceeding is a rather 
startling one, being the rejection of the wings which had so lately borne them 
through the air. This object is achieved by pressing the ends of the wings 
against the ground, and then forcing them suddenly downwards. The wing 
then snaps off at the joint, and the creature, thus reduced to the wingless 
state of a worker, is seized upon and conveyed to a suitable spot, where she 
begins to supply a vast quantity of eggs. These are carefully conveyed 
awav and nu'tured until they burst forth into the three states of male, female, 
and neuter. the precise method by which the development is arrested so as to 
produce the neuter condition not being very accurately known. 
The illustration represents an Australian example of the SOLITARY Wasps, 
many of which are found in England. The curious nest of this insect is 
shown immediately above. suspended to a branch. The creature makes a 
separate nest tor each egg, the material being clay well worked, and the 
shape as represented in the engraving. The nest is stocked with larvee of 
moths or butterflies. 
NN 
