•2 



r-\ 



Fig. 9. 



other urchin) delights to destroy, regardless of the labor which has been expended in its 

 construction, or of the many lives it contains. They are also the possessors of powerful 



stings, as many of the said urchins experience and of which 

 I have myself felt the venom on several occasions. The 

 " yellow-jackets " who have a nest hid in a clump of rasp- 

 berries delight to put to flight those who would pluck the 

 fruit of the vines, and the old wasp who has commenced 

 her home in the woodshed is jealous of intruders. Vespa 

 maculata, (Fig. 9,) the white-faced wasp, whose colours are 

 black and white, may very frequently be seen on old 

 palings, boards, dead trees, etc., scraping off with its 

 mandibles the fibres of wood, which it carries off to its nest 

 and uses in its construction. 



The household of the wasp consists in summer of three 

 sorts of individuals (as in the ants) of which the workers, or sterile females, are the most 

 abundant. The colony is not, however, a perennial institution like an ant-hill, but lasts 

 only for one season. It is founded by an impregnated female, which has managed to 

 survive the winter in some protected crevice, and which, revived by the warmth of spring, 

 comes forth to commence her housekeeping. Building a comb of a few cells, she deposits 

 an egg in each, and when the larva? are hatched she feeds them carefully with the juices of 

 flowers and animal matter, or with finely masticated morsels of insects such as flies. These 

 larva? develope finally into workers which assist their mother in enlarging the domicile 

 and in rearing new broods of inmates. The nest grows larger and larger ; new coverings 

 being constructed without, and the inner ones demolished to give room for the new rows 

 of cells which are added to the combs. These combs are placed horizontally, suspended 

 one below the other by columns. The cells are constructed mouth downward so that the 

 larva? have always to stand on their heads, or rather to hang by their tails, seemingly a 

 very awkward and dangerous position in which to spend this period of their existence. 

 The time taken to pass from the egg to the perfect state occupies about a month, and thus 

 there can be several broods in the season. The last one contains males and fertile females, 

 and, as has already been stated, some of the latter survive the winter to be the founders 

 of new colonies. The species, of which there are several, constructing the large nests all 

 belong to the genus Vespa. 



There is another wasp which con- 

 structs a tiny nest of a few cells under 

 fiat stones, etc., which belongs to the 

 genus Polistes. Its nest is not sur- 

 rounded by a papery envelope, but is 

 merely attached to the under side of a 

 stone by a short foot-stalk, and it is 

 never enlarged to accommodate a large 

 family. The name of the species is 

 Polistes pallipes. (Fig- 10, a. wasp, 

 h. nest.) 



Fig. 10. 



JlSDREXIDjE. 



The insects contained in this family with those of the following one (Apidse) are by 

 •ome entomologists grouped in a sub-order, or tribe, to which is given the name Jfellifera, 

 or Honey-makers. Abbfe Provencher has grouped into this family many genera which 

 are sometimes placed with the Apida?, and includes in that family only the genera which 

 form the sub-family Socialina? of some authorities. It will suit us very well here to follow 

 the Abbe and the family as by him constituted will be found to contain about twenty- 

 five genera, and over one hundred species. 



Its members are commonly known as "Solitary Bees," and differ also from the 

 Apidae, or " Social Bees " in not having sterile females, or workers. As might be expected, 

 the species vary much in their habits, and in their modes of making provision for their 



