A Wasp that Commands "Respect. 
93 
2So. Only one of these boarders that knew how to command con- 
tinual respect on account of its powerful sting, though it was fortunately 
only exercised when disturbed, afforded me plenty of diversion during the 
gloomy days when our only resources lay within tlie narrow confines of 
our quarters. It was a large wasp (J<p]iex i)cnusylv(inica ) . Immediately 
upon the commencement of the rainy season this hustling insect appeared 
on our premises, settled on the ground and actively souglit a spot suitable 
for its nest . When tliis luid been found, it commenced digging a round 
hole with the help of its mandibles and feet, and judging from the little 
heap of earth that it shovelled out behind this must have been fairly dee]), 
as was indeed found to be the case on closer investigation. Hardly Avere 
the mining operations completed than the busy creature flew out of the 
Jiouse, to r-eturn after a short time with a spoil at least five times as big 
as itself — a grass-hopper of the genus Conocephalus — to which it held 
fast with both mandibles and feet: laying it down here the wasp dis- 
appeared inside the excavation, but soon showed up again to drag its 
victim into the entrance, during the course of which manoeuvres a num- 
ber of difficulties and obstacles were overcome. Hai-dly was this Itusiness 
completed, and the ever restless creature already flown out of the liouse, 
than, laden afresh a few minutes later it recommenced the same tiresome 
work. It was most astonishing to me that altliough eight at least of these 
busy creatures had excavated their "Lying-in i"Ooms" in our premises, and 
each returned 'quite eight times a day laden witli spoil, they nevertheless 
dragged along no other insect besides the kind mentioned, one that I had 
only very r-are1y noticed in the savannah. 
If I removed the lipcdful mother's spoils during her absence in the 
pit she subjected the house on her return to the most rigorous search, 
and then only would she fly away on her next murder case. When the 
hole was full of corpses, she laid her eggs the maggots creeping out 
found nourishment, but the caring mother disappeared to be seen no 
more. 
235. We had now to spend four months in such company. This far 
from comforting prospect would be now and then cheered by a fine and 
pleasant day, when we would hurry from our cramped and darkened 
quarters out into the free and open world that had now almost become 
foreign lo ns. The Tropics also have their Spring-time, their virgin days 
of May, and though the vegetation there does not sleep beneath a stiffen- 
ing coverlet of ice and snow, the scorching breath of the dry season never- 
theless wafts over it a yellow-grey covering that offers to the eye, particu- 
larly on the broad savannah, a much gloomier picture than does the l»laz- 
ing and radiant snowy one of the North. Whereas in this case, the warm 
southerly breeze and the spring sun's early relaxing rays only let this 
melt away but gradually, and allow the sprouting shoots and swelling 
leaf-buds to peep into the unaccustomed atmosphere but timidly and 
slowly, the first downpour of rain is in the tropics tlie mighty magic spell 
that calls the expiring verdure back to life. A refreshing green which, 
in beauty and vigour yielded nothing to that of the North, enveloped all 
the higher situations of the savannah, and plants whose blossoms I had 
