12 
FINDING NATURE’S TREASURES 
of the room with legs and wings and head and eyes and 
stinger, like all the other big wasps. I wish I could ex¬ 
plain to you how the baby wasp does it. All I can tell 
you is that soon after the baby shuts itself in the room, 
it goes to sleep. Slowly the baby changes so that it looks 
more like the big wasps. But it is still white, and the 
legs and wings are inside its skin, so the baby wasp can¬ 
not use them.” 
“Since it looks so different from a baby wasp, what is 
it called?” asked Fred. 
“I am glad you asked that question, Fred. I shall give 
you three new words to learn. While the baby wasp is 
eating and growing, we call it a larva. After it goes to 
sleep and is changing to a grown-up wasp, it becomes a 
pupa. The skin of the'pupa turns darker and splits down 
the back after a few more days. The full-grown wasp 
then crawls out of the skin and cuts a hole in the end of 
the paper room so that it can get out. Now it is like the 
other wasps, and is called an adult.” 
“I am going to try to remember all that Uncle Jack 
has told us about wasps,” said Marylee. 
“I know that I will always remember not to poke a 
nest of theirs,” declared Buddy, as he rubbed his face, 
which was swollen where the wasps had stung him. 
