The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-05-30
African Wasps.

In a corner of my bedroom win
dow, a bit of architecture was OBJ
served last February. A pair Of
slender wasps or hornets, with golden
bodies and purple wings, came and
built, bit by bit, most industriously
and fast, seven tunnels Of clay. The
male insect worked. lie fetched the
moist pellets of clay from a distant
puddle outside the garden. These
be worked, with mouth and paws,
into shape most beautifully. When
the first tunnel waa complete the
female went in and laid her egg at
the bottom Then together they
few away, and came back with a
spider, half killed, that is. stung to a
deadened state, which was tucked
into the tunnel. Tie pair worked on
hunting for spiders all day and pop
ping them in-and night surprised
them too soon-so the male fetched a
pellet of clay and made a perfect
door, closing up the hole from all in
truders, and they disappeared.
In the morning, quite early, l
opened the shutters, without which
they could not get at their work. and
very soon they arrived. They cut
and tugged at the still damp door till
it came away clean and left the open
arch, and several more unfortunate
spiders were added to the larder of
the future grub laid in embryo at the
end of the tunnel. Then it was
closed with fresh clay, and made
donbly secure by extra thickness of
daubing. And Immediately, without
waiting to rest. a new tunnel Was
built side by side with the first.
For days, I think quite a fortnight.
we watched their steady work, until
seven Of these wonderful tombs, or. |
should say. habitations, were filled
and closed. After the insects had quite
finished and gone altogether (leaving
the whole daubed together and ce-
mented into one large lump of various
shades of clay) I cut it out of the
window, and have got it in a basket
covered with net, SO that we may see
the exit of the young creatures that
are to eat through all those spiders,
and break their way into the world
some day. When and how this hap
pens l will tell you. l opened one
tunnel lengthwise, that we might see
and count the spiders There were
fifteen in it! Fat-bodied little garden
spiders of various sorts. One was
too big to push in, so they cut its legs
off at the roots.
We waited just a little too long,
nearly two months, before digging an
opening into that hornets mud cas-
tie What we found was a long,
transparent brown case, and within
it a hornet, perfectly formed but col
o%rless, just as the leaves of a plant
are white if buried from the light.
Not a trace OF the fifteen spiders :!
All those must have been eaten by
the little grub which came out of
the egg Probably the egg was laid
in the fat body of a spider and when
the spiders were all eaten, we can
only suppose the grub went through
a change and came into the hornet,
but how that beautiful case was
formed over it | cannot imagine.
You could see the creature inside
perfectly, as if it were made of glass.
and the whole thing exactly
fitted the tunnel of clay. After
a few more days another tunnel was
opened, not by US, but by the perfect
ed hornet itself. A round hole at
the end was cut, as if with a sharp
instrument, and out walked the pref
ty creature slowly and sleepily then
it walked up on the top of the clay
mound and spread it's wings, quite
ready to take it's place at once in the
business of life. We uncovered the
net from the basket and let it fly, and
next season | shall! look out for
another such erection, and open the
tunnel earlier, so as to e the grub
when half through it's larder of cold
meat.-Natural History Notes.