602 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. |. (Vor. XXXIX. 
ZOOLOGY. 
Wasps Social and Solitary.' — Rarely has such a fascinating 
book as this on a given subject of natural history been presented to 
the lovers of nature studies. So clearly and charmingly written, it is 
a work from which all can derive pleasure and instruction. The 
amount of time and patience required to obtain a knowledge of the 
life habits of the various species can only be appreciated by one who 
has attempted to work out a few species bearing indirectly on another 
order of insects. 
The varied habits of the wasps, from earth-diggers to wood-borers, 
and from masons to paper-makers, give one every opportunity of 
coming in contact with some of them during the many summer ram- 
bles, and often to observe them under the most favorable circum- 
stances. Their methods of paralyzing other insects and spiders 
which they transport to their nests as food for their larve, suggests 
both surgical and engineering skill ; equally interesting is the fact 
that each species selects certain kinds of food for its progeny ; one 
captures spiders only, another the larvae of Lepidoptera, a third flies, 
and others beetles or bugs. “So strong and deeply seated is the 
preference that no fly-robber ever takes spiders, nor will the ravisher 
of the spiders change to beetles or bugs.” 
The activities of the wasp are arranged under two groups: — 
“Instincts and Acts of Intelligence, it being understood that these 
classes pass by insensible stages into each other.” Under the first 
are included stinging, the particular methods of attacking and par- 
alyzing the prey, selecting the proper food, mode of carrying booty, 
the general style of nest, spinning of cocoons, etc. To distinguish 
acts of intelligence requires a familiarity with the normal conditions 
of the insect. Such modifications of instinct as the adaptation of the 
mud-daubers (Pelopzus) to the rafters and chimneys of buildings, 
the Trypoxylon taking advantage of the straws on the face of a stack 
that had been cut off smoothly, the hanging of spiders in a plant to 
avoid the attacks of ants while searching for a nesting-place, the 
occasional occupation by a queen Polistes of the previous year’s 
comb instead of building a new one, the almost universal habit of 
Bembex of closing the openings to their burrows when leaving, and 
: P eckham, George W., and Elizabeth G. Wasps Social and Solitary. With 
an introduction by John Burroughs. Boston and New York, Houghton, Miftlin 
0,1 I2mo, xv + 511 pp, illus. 


