440 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1910 



'Young" nest, side view 



Cells 



ith 



s with eggs ^magni 



ified) 



"Y 



oung 



nest fr 



ibove 



trophes are by no means rare, and it is remarkable that 

 their frequent recurrence should not have induced the wasps 

 to alter their building arrangements. One would think that 

 a daily shower of babies from the ceiling would suffice to 

 teach the least attentive nurses that vertical cradles are 

 unsafe. Not so, however, with the wasps. They seem to 

 accept the accidents quite as a matter of course, and never 

 replace the unfortunate infants, but deposit them on the 

 refuse heap at a distance from the nest. 



The lucky grubs which succeed in planting their sucker 

 feet firmly upon the roof of their cells 

 have soon nothing to fear, for they grow 

 so fat as completely to fill their cradles. 

 At regular intervals they are supplied with 

 food by the busy workers, their diet con- 

 sisting mainly of the soft parts of insects, 

 varied by an occasional mouthful of 

 nectar or fruit juice. In from ten to four- 

 teen days after hatching, the grub is full 

 fed, and ready to spin the silken cap over 

 the mouth of its cell. Then, in private 

 is enacted the marvelous transformation 

 which culminates in the birth of a mature 

 wasp. The whole metamorphosis, from 

 egg to perfect insect, occupies rather more 

 than three weeks under favorable condi- 

 tions; but the newly-emerged wasp is pale 

 and weak at first, and passes a period of 

 probation within the shelter of the nest 

 ere she goes forth to forage for the benefit of the com- 

 munity. The subsequent career of the individual worker 

 wasp is soon told. At first, when young and vigorous, she 

 devotes most of her energy to the maintenance and enlarge- 

 ment of the nest. But ere long, probably less than three 

 weeks, her powers of paper-making fail her. She may now 

 be styled an "old wasp," and finds fitting employment for 

 her declining days in feeding and nursing the hungry grubs 

 in their cells. She nourishes her charges, as we have seen. 



Queen wasp preparing nest making 

 material 



chiefly upon insect fare; but she herself displays a marked 

 preference for syrups and sweets. She visits the ripe fruit 

 in our orchards, the jams in our kitchens, and the seductive 

 dainties in the stores. She also gathers nectar from a few 

 flowers, particularly the little liver-colored bloom of the 

 fig-wort; while she may often be seen regaling herself at 

 the tiny cups which the reader may find on the undersides 

 of laurel leaves close to the stalks. 



So far the population of the wasp kingdom has consisted 

 of one queen-mother and a vast number of sexless workers. 

 But, as summer wanes, certain large cells 

 are prepared, and in them is reared a 

 brood of young princesses and princes, 

 or drones, as the latter are commonly 

 termed. This brood may consist of 

 scores or hundreds of individuals accord- 

 ing to the prosperity of the community. 



The amours and merry-making of 

 these royal personages keep the kingdom 

 in a whirl of joyous activity, for the ad- 

 vent of young princesses is not a signal 

 for revolution, as is the case with bees. 

 The workers go to and fro with their 

 burdens, the grubs are cleaned and fed 

 with due care. Yet the prescient ob- 

 server realizes that the day of the wasp 

 is well-nigh over — that the kingdom is 

 about to fall. The chill of autumn will 

 strike to the heart of the prosperous com- 

 munity with the terror of a pestilence. 



Starvation will ravage it — for the insects store no sus- 

 tenance within their paper cities, and, with the cold of ap- 

 proaching winter gnawing at their vitals, they cease to roam 

 abroad in search of food. Thus they die — die by tens, by 

 hundreds, by thousands — the enfeebled workers actually 

 dragging the half-grown grubs from their cells, and casting 

 them forth to share the common fate of the community. 

 Only the young princesses survive, destined as they are to 



1, with worker purpse; 2. with queen purpae 



1, Queen; 2. worker; ?. drone 



Wasps' "comb" magnified 



Wasp cells 2 



Types of wasp 



