Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1888-12-07
WONDERF INSECTS.

There is nothing new under the
SUM- wrote the wise man but who
would have thought that the secret OF
preserving fresh meat, which we are
all anXiously trying to find out, was
known and practiced ages ago by the
wasp family, and that in a way much
more clever than we can ever hope to
attain?
Is it not strange in itself that the
solitary wasps, that is, the species in
which each one builds its own nest,
though they feed entirely on honey
themselves, know that the young
grubs which will come from their eggs
need animal food? For after flying
about among the flowers ever since
they left their cocoons, these sand
wasps, toward the end of July, begin
to burrow in the soft sand, and when
they have formed chamber they lay
an egg in it and provide flies, spiders,
grasshoppers- or beetles for the young
larva which is soon to be born.
Some bring the food in piece by
piece as their child is ready to feed
upon it. The Bembex, or bee-wasp,
may be seen doing this in most parts
of the world.
When she has scooped out in the
sand the chamber in which her young
grub is to be born and pass its youth
"a smooth, oval cell, at the end of a
short passage-she comes out and flies
away.
But she soon returns with a little
golden-green fly in her grasp, flies
straight to the right spot in the sand,
enters, and, placing the fly on its back
within the oval chamber, she lays up
on its flank tiny, sticky egg.
Then she comes out and again closes
the door of the passage, for she knows
that in twenty-four hours the grub
will be Matched, and, finding its food
ready to eat, will devour, till, in about
two days, nothing will be left Of its
victim but the debris of skin and legs
and wings.
Here we have preserving OF meat.
We must go to another group to find
the skillful meat-preservers. Here the
Sphex will serve us, that curious genus
so easily known from common wasps
by the thin stalk which joins the alb
domen TO the rest OF its body. There
are large and small Sphexes. some Of
which feed their grubs on small grass
hoppers, while others attack even a
good-sized locust; but one and all they
are skillful practitioners, and know
how to paralyze without killing, so as
leave their prey stored up in fresh
state till the grub needs it,
This time We must not go TO loose
sand-banks, but to a gravelly soil, or
to places where tufts Of grass bind the
sand together and make a shelter over
the doorway OF the cells Then, if we
listen carefully. we may hear the busy
hum of some twelve or twenty Sphex
sand-wasps, each digging out her sep
arate home, although they work to-
gether for company.
1t is harder work than that of the
Bembex, for the ground is close and
firm, but each one with her powerful
Jaws digs into the ground, often lift
ing out even a small stone and plac-
ing it aside, while, with her forefeet,
she clears in front, throwing out the
gravel with her hind legs, and redoub
ling her efforts and her humming song
whenever a tougher piece of ground
calls for all her strength
In a few hours she has made a gal
lery some inches in length and bent
like an elbow near the opening tC
keep out wind and rain, while at the
farther end she made an oval chamber