The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1892-02-25
NATURES PAPER MAKERS
A Short Story of the Wasp and
Its Habits.
An Industrious Insect That Builds wit1
Infinite Skill and Does Not Live
to Enjoy the Fruits OF
Its Labors.

eWasps were the first paper-makers,
said an entomologist to a writer for the
Washington Star. 1T is very interest,"
ing to study the ways of these fierce lit
tie insects. For the sake of grab at
the honey store single individual Will
sometimes face a whole hive of bees,
being in a fair combat match for any
three inhabitants of the apiary. Most
of us have had experience of the fear
lessness with which they will attack
human beings.
'sThe wasp spends the winter in
torpid condition, and when spring ar
rives she hunts up some sort OF smell
tered spot appropriate for a nest. A
mouse hole serves her purpose excel
lently. Having selected the retreat,
she proceeds to lay within it the foun-
dation of home that is destined be-
fore long to afford quarters for large
and busy family. For this object earth
will not serve her turn. The substance
of which the walls and chambers of the
house are to be composed must be none
other than the finest paper, made of
wood pulp. mixed with sort of sizing,
worked to paste and finally spread in
to sheets.
''On any fine day in springtimc you
may catch sight OF a wasp earnestly at
work with its jaws upon an old fence
paling or window frame. In this man
ner she gets together bundle of wood
raspings, which she carries into the
I'm oI-
ing it into paste and preparing it prop
erly for her purpose With this mate
rial she builds sort of terrace, which
she suspends horizontally, and not, like
the combs of beehive, in vertical
position. The terrace is u sort OF hang
ing floor, secured to the roof by strong
paper rods. 1t is circular, and is com
posed of an immense number of cells
made of paper and almost of the same
size and form as those of honey-comb,
each being a perfect heXagon. These
cells, however, are never used as hon
ey pots by wasps, as they are by bees,
for wasps make no honey, and the cells
are only utilized for nursery purposes
in other words, as rooms in which the
young are reared.
"When the old lady wasp has COM
pleted a certain number of cells and de-
posted eggs in them she stops building
in order to procure honey from the
flowers whercwith to feed the young
wormlike larvae which have BEEN Matched
from the eggs. In few weeks these
little grubs become perfect wasps and
lend their assistance in the extension of
the edifice, forming another platform of
cells suspended from the first by col
umns. So it continues, and by the end
of summer the house-perhaps it might
be better called town-of hanging ter
races is completed, and the descendants
of the original foundress may number
Us many as thirty thousand.
Scarcely has the nest arrived at COM
pletion through the labors of the young
est generation of its inhabitants, when
the early frosts of autumn begin to thir
their numbers. When November comes
the wasp population is cut off by {
pestilence. OF those abroad some fall
far from their habitation; others craw
back to die, while those at home, latel,
SO busy in the work of building, repair
ing, or keeping in order, are now slug
gish and inactive. In a little while tn
city of terraces becomes city of tn
dead. Its sole surviving jewellers ar
two or three females, on whom depend
the perpetuation of the race. They pas
the winter in a torpid state, and whe
the early warmth Of spring awaken
them they wander off, each on her ow
way, to found another colony"