. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. DIPLOPTERA WASPS—EUMENIDAE 73 placed in the midst of. fossorial Hymenoptera), but complete evidence of this does not seem to he extant, and if it he so, the stinging does not' completely deprive the caterpillars of the capacity of movement, for they possess the power of using their mandibles and of making strokes, or kicking with the posterior part of the body. It is clear that if the delicate egg of the Eumenes or the deli- cate larva that issues from it were mass of this kind, it would probably suffer destruction ; therefore, to prevent this, the egg
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. DIPLOPTERA WASPS—EUMENIDAE 73 placed in the midst of. fossorial Hymenoptera), but complete evidence of this does not seem to he extant, and if it he so, the stinging does not' completely deprive the caterpillars of the capacity of movement, for they possess the power of using their mandibles and of making strokes, or kicking with the posterior part of the body. It is clear that if the delicate egg of the Eumenes or the deli- cate larva that issues from it were mass of this kind, it would probably suffer destruction ; therefore, to prevent this, the egg is not placed among the caterpillars, but is sus- pended from the dome covering the nest by a delicate thread rivalling in fineness the web of the spider, and being above the mass of food it is safe. When the young larva leaves the egg it still makes use of the shell as its habit- ation, and eats its first meals from the vantage-jDoint of this suspension; although the mass of Fib. 28.—Nidification of solitary the food grows less by consumption, the little larva is still enabled to reach it by the fact that the egg- shell splits up to a sort of ribbon, and thus adds to the length of the suspensory thread, of which it is the terminal portion. Finally the heap of caterpillars shrinks so much that it cannot be reached by the larva even with the aid of the augmented length of the suspensory thread ; by this time, however, the little creature has so much increased in size and strength that it is able to take its place amongst the food without danger of being crushed by the mass, and it afterwards completes its metamorphosis in the usual manner. It is known that other species of Uumenes construct vase- like nests ; U. unguiculata, however, according to an imperfect account given by Perris, makes with earth a closed nest of irregular shape, containing three cells in one mass. The saliva of these builders has the power of acting as a cement, and of forming with the clay a very impe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1895
