Wasps and their ways . VESPAS STING VESPAS abdomen is joined to thethorax by a very slender attachment,though this is not apparent to the casualobserver, as the broad, blunt end of theabdomen usually conceals the slight threadby which it is held in place, and makes thewasp look like a much stouter andmore substantially built creaturethan she is. The true form showsbest in a dead Vespa, which isusually curled says in his quaint way, — The body of the Wasp seemeth to befastened and tyed together to the midstof the breast, with a certain thin, finethread or line, so that by this disjoy
Wasps and their ways . VESPAS STING VESPAS abdomen is joined to thethorax by a very slender attachment,though this is not apparent to the casualobserver, as the broad, blunt end of theabdomen usually conceals the slight threadby which it is held in place, and makes thewasp look like a much stouter andmore substantially built creaturethan she is. The true form showsbest in a dead Vespa, which isusually curled says in his quaint way, — The body of the Wasp seemeth to befastened and tyed together to the midstof the breast, with a certain thin, finethread or line, so that by this disjoyned,and not well compacted composition, theyseem very feeble in their loins or rather to have none at all/ 7%. VESPAS STING 79 Most of the wasps organs of digestionare packed away in the abdomen, and hereis the capacious stomach. At the tip ofthe abdomen is the wasps serviceableweapon which is also, in the queen, theovipositor or egg-placer. The wasp, like the bee, carries its stingin its tail, or, as Moffett vividly expressesit, Their tayle is armed with a long,stiffe and exceeding venomous sting,and concerning the efficiency of thisweapon there is but one opinion. From early ages to the present time the fiery darts of the wasps have furnishedillustrations of invincible attack; as whenHomer, in the Iliad, speaking of the valourof the Greeks, causes one of the enemyto exclaim amazed,— M did not look to see the men of GreeceStand thus before our might and our strong arms;Yet they, like pliant-bodied wasps or bees,That build their cells beside the rocky way,And quit not their abode, but, waiting there
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