. An introduction to zoology, with directions for practical work (invertebrates). 390 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY and his wife,^ to delight in tracing out their curious ways of life and interesting history. This insect has been called " a tiger-soul on elfin wings," ^ and the description suits it well, for marvellously in contrast are the audacity and courage of the little, vividly coloured thief and the delicate, minute wings on which it speeds so swiftly through the air. As in the case of Humble Bees, only the l^ggjj^''^ queen wasp survives the winter, hibernating in some sheltered cre
. An introduction to zoology, with directions for practical work (invertebrates). 390 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY and his wife,^ to delight in tracing out their curious ways of life and interesting history. This insect has been called " a tiger-soul on elfin wings," ^ and the description suits it well, for marvellously in contrast are the audacity and courage of the little, vividly coloured thief and the delicate, minute wings on which it speeds so swiftly through the air. As in the case of Humble Bees, only the l^ggjj^''^ queen wasp survives the winter, hibernating in some sheltered crevice. On her alone depends the whole possible future colony of many thousands of wasps. She awakes usually early in April, and having cleaned and brushed herself she leaves her hiding-place, and after a hasty meal at once begins to search for a convenient spot where she can found her city, which usually must be safely hidden in the earth, though sometimes it is suspended under the eaves of a house or barn. Very likely she will take possession of some burrow she finds in the earth, and will enlarge it to suit her needs, carrying out the soil bit by bit in her mouth. Soon she flies off to find some dry exposed piece of well- seasoned wood, and with her specially powerful jaws she scrapes away a few of its fibres, which she then bites up and mixes with a sticky secretion from her mouth, until it is a pulpy mass (Fig. 301). With this she flies back to her bur- row and begins to build. The first pellets of wood pulp she fixes to some firm object, such as a root in the roof of a cavity in the burrow where she elects to build, so that a little pendent stalk is formed; to the end of this she attaches first a small cup-shaped cover about \ an inch in diameter, and then, hanging down below it, a little flat platform with three or four shallow cup-shaped cells with their open mouths downwards. The pulp with which she builds hardens quickly into a tough grey papery substance. 1 Wasps, Soci
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1913
