Washington sentinel., 1898-02-12

pondingly numerous colonies
And who are these survivors,
Not the lordly and idle drones;
nor even the industrious neuter or
workers; but the perfect females
or queens, the teeming mothers to
be OF the coming communities. AS
autumn approaches the vigorous
Young queen weds one of the males
from her own nest. But shortly |
afterward,he and all the workers OF
his city fall victims at once to the
frosts of October. They perish like
Nineveh. The queen, however,
bearing all the hopes of the race,
cannot afford to fling away her
precious life so carelessly! That
is the way Of queens. She seeks
out some sheltered spot among dry
moss, or in the crannies OF the
earth-a sandy soil preferred -
where she NAV hibernate safely.
There, if she h IS luck, she pas sies
the winter, dormant, without Seri'
Gus mishap. OF course snow and
frost destroy MT a few such soil
tary hermits; a heavy rain may
drown her; a bird may discover
her chosen retreat, a passing ami
NAL may crush her. But in tavor-
able circumstances, a certain num-
Der oil queens do manage to strug-
gle safely through the colder
months; and the wasp supply tor
the next season mainly depends
upon the proportion such lucky
ladies that escape in the end all
winter dangers Each. queen that
lives through the hard times
becomes the foundress OF a separ-
ate colony; and il is on this ac-
count that farmers and fruit grow
ers often pay a small reward tor
every queen wasp killed early IN
the spring. A single mother wasp
destroyed in May is equivalent to
a whole nest destroyed in July or
August.
AS soon as warm weather sets
in, the dormant queen awakes,
shakes off dull sloth, and forgets
her torpor. With a toss and a
shake, she crawls out into the sum
shine which soon reviVes her.
Then she creeps up a blade Of
grass, spreads her wings, and flies
off. Her first care is naturally
breakfast; and as she has eaten
nothing Tor FIVE months, her hun.
ger is no doubt justiiable. AS
soon, however, as she has justified
the most pressing wants OF her
own nature, maternal instinct
goads her on TO provide at once
for her unborn family. She seeks
site for her nest, her future city.
The first point she has now to
consider is the placing Of her nest.
In this she is guided partly by that
inherited experience which we de-
scribe (somewhat foolishly) as in
stinct, and partly by her own in
dividual intelligence. Different
races OF wasps prefer different stu
ations; some OF. them burrow un-
derground others hang their
houses in the branches OF trees;
others seek some dry and hollow
trunk Butpersonal taste has also
much to do with It; thus the COM
mon English wasp sometimes
builds underground, but some
times takes advantage of the dry
space under the ewes OF houses.
HORNET's STING AN ANTIDOTE
FOR SNAKE BITE M. Phisalix, the
French authority on the venoms
Of insects and reptiles, has estab-
llshed beyond a doubt that the
poison Of the hornet in sufficient
. | quantity renders one immune 10
tnat OF the viper. "The poison Oh
the hymenoptera has been studied
by various observers, among
, others by Paul Bert. Accor ding
to him and to M. Cloez. the poison
Of the carpenter bee owes its aCtiv
ity to the presence OF an organic
base in union with an unknown
, fixed acid. According to NJ. Ian.
I ger, in the venom OF the bee there
| is found a small quantity OF formiC
= acid, but the toxic substance is ar
= alkaloId that resists heat and cole
. as well as the action of acids. Bu
, although there is thus disagree
ment on the subject of the chem.
, ical composition OF This poison, il
is not the same with its physiologiC
, action. Paul Bert, having causec
the carpenter bee to sting sparrows
, saw them die from stoppage Of res
r piration, in complete paralysis
4 and recently M. LANCER has killec
= rabbits and dogs by inoculatinl
4 them with bee poison, tn ir symp
S toms being similar to those oi pois
! oDing by the bite OF the viper
\ Now, in experiments whose result
. we are about to describe, M Phi
! salix has investigated the relation
{ of the hornet to that Of the viper
and he first tried to see whethe
| the former did not possess immun
t izing qualities against the latter
9 The results fully confirmed fIs ex
= pectations. The poison extracted
D from the stings OF fifteen hornets
e injected into the leg Of a guinei
( pig, caused a lowering of temper
r ature by four degs., which LASTED
r thirty-six hours. At the point o
] inoculation were produced rednes
( and swelling which finally reached
s the abdomen and ended in mortifi
cation Of the skin. In a similar
experiment. where the same dos,
Of poison was heated to 80 degs
for twenty minutes, there was nC