The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-09-24
THE DIGGER WASP.

Mr.. Gerald Mccarthy, Biologist of
the North Carolina Department of
Agriculture, furnishes The Raleigh
Times with a paper on The Digger
Wasp. This wasp is a most interest
ing insect and our young people will
doubtless be interested in the follow
ing description of it's habits as given
by Mr.. MCCARTHY:
Considerable indignation exists
among the feminine owners of hand
some lawns in Raleigh, and probably
other North Carolina towns against
a "hateful creature" which digs
holes in or along the walks, throw
ing up unsightly mounds with the
soil excavated. The Creature in
question is the digger wasp or
hornet, scientifically known as
SpheciuS SpeciOSuS. This is the
largest insect of the wasp family
found in the United Statese. 1t is
also one of the h~andsomest, and as
will be seen, the most intelligent of
created insects.
The active and ''hateful" wasp is
always female! The male wasp, like
other good creatures, dies young.
The female wasp digs a nest in the
ground generally going from one and
one half to two feet deep. The nest
oOrais&o Of q oo1&ro1 roI1o-- -iEb ai5o
passages on both sides ending in
round cnlls. Each nest usually CON
tains about a dozen cells. With a
foresight unequaled in the whole in
scot world, the mother wasp, before
laying her eggs, stores each cell with
a large fat insect to serve for food
for the young wasp, which she is
never to see, and which is born a
helpless, footless grub that must
spend it's entire larval life-ten
months-in the ground. The grub
is utterly unable to forage for itself
and must inevitable starve but for
the maternal providence.
The chief food of the larval wasp
is the dog-day Cicada or Harvest
Fly-CicddG tubiceR. This is a very
large, juicy insect whose shrill note
from trees is frequently heard dur
ing August and September. The
maternal wasp ruthlessly pounoes
upon the luckless piping cioada and
thrusts her sting into it at a particu-
lar spot-never elsewhere. The spot
selected for the thrust is directly
over the chief nerve center of the
oicada. The thrust causes instant
paralysis of the cicada, but does not
kill it. The cicada is many times
larger and heavier than the wasp.
To carry her prey to the nest in the
ground the wasp must climb n or
more trees, dragging the heavy
cicada with her. From the tree she
makes a swoop in the direction of
the nest, but is usually borne to the
ground by the weight of the cicada
before reaching the. nest. Another
tree must be climbed, another swOOp
made, and the process repeated as
often as required until the nest is
reached. Once the paralyzed cicada
is safely deposited in one of the cells
in the nest an egg is laid upon it by
the wasp-always in a particular
pIace-never elsewhere. The cell is
then sealed up with clay. The egg
matches into a footless grub in 2 or 3
days. The egg has been so placed
that the head of the grub lies right
over the most unprotected part of
the cicada's body and in a part re-
mote from any vital organ. The
grub is thus enabled TO secure food
without any trouble as soon as born
and TO feed upon the body of the
but paralyzed cicada for a
week before the cicada is finally de-
stroyed. At the end of this time the
wasp grub has attained full growth.
1t now spins about itself a cocoon of
impervious silk and within this
transforms to the dormant pupa
state in which it lies quiescent until
the following summer when it comes
forth as a mature winged wasp TO
repeat the oycle.
The blossoms of spring are the
~ a-A-nn 60 O inrEnl