. The American entomologist. Entomology. 138 THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. often infest badly kepi collections of in- sects. It is very leniarliablc thai, althoujili all llie Digger AV^asps feed in the larva state upon liv- ing animal matter, tliey all of them in the per- fect or winged state feed exclusively upon veg- etable substances, such as the honey and pollen of flowers. Hence it is the more wonderful, tliat they should be impelled by nature to store up for their future oflspring a supply of such food, as would be utterly distasteful to them- selves. The True Wasps—Solitary Species. The so
. The American entomologist. Entomology. 138 THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. often infest badly kepi collections of in- sects. It is very leniarliablc thai, althoujili all llie Digger AV^asps feed in the larva state upon liv- ing animal matter, tliey all of them in the per- fect or winged state feed exclusively upon veg- etable substances, such as the honey and pollen of flowers. Hence it is the more wonderful, tliat they should be impelled by nature to store up for their future oflspring a supply of such food, as would be utterly distasteful to them- selves. The True Wasps—Solitary Species. The solitary True Wasps scarcely difier in their habits from the Digger "Wasps, except that such genera (Otii/nertis, etc.) as construct their nests in sandy banks, in the interstices of stone walls, in holes bored by other insects in wood, etc., never dig with tlieir two front legs, or scrabble out the excavated fragments with their four hind legs, after the usual fashion of the Digger Wasps. On the contrary, they always excavate their holes solely with their powerful jaws, having first, when they are boring into hard eartli, softened it with their saliva; and they always carry the excavated fragments out with their mouths, instead of scrabbling Ihem out Avith their legs.* The reason is obvious: their legs, as stated above, arc smooth, and, there- fore, not adapted for digging, scratching and scrabbling. Many genera, however, construct mud-nests in the open air, and we present here- with a sketch from nature (Figure llo, 6), of [ ( .,l,.l-6-(,.) Ijlark ;unl yellow; (i/) ; (c) juml- t'nlor and grt't-n. ihat built by a common North American species, belonging to such a genus—the Frater- nal Wasp {Eumenesfmterna, Say, Fig. 110, a). Figure 110, c, shows the same nest cut open shortly after it was built, so as to display the close and compact manner in which the small green caterpillars, with which it was stored, arc 1 than St. Fargcau. arranged by the mother-was
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectentomology, bookyear1
