The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-26
THE RIDDLE IF
 THE PESKY WASP BotherSome NeighbOr But at
 Times Has Uses FOUNDAL OVER THE EARTH It Eats Up Many Things Which Might Be More of a Nusance-The
 Hornet Is the Worst
 of Kind.
FOUND ALL OVER THE EARTH

of Kind.
 From the New York Evening Post
 Among the varying types of insect life nature assigns to the wasp so many use full, and. to mans thinking, destructive duties, that the riddle of unfolding its life has always been captivating.. Not un- like the bee, in one particular. over thousand species of this great family in- fest and bless the earth. What between destroying shrubs and certain trees. cap turing useful and nauseous Insects alike acting like constituencies pirates. annoy ing cattle, taking possession of barns and outhouses, disfguring fruit, attacking picnic parties in the woods and by the sea. and wthal assuming the role of cannibas and vegetrians at one and the same time. it seems an enigma of science to place so uniformly beautiful an in sect
 In social habits. the yespidae( or wasps proper. come nearest to the bee. though widely differing in many regards. espe- cially in that the community is broken up at the close of summer. and has to be reproduced and annually reformed. As fall approaches. the family members slowly die off. only a few females RNAtAAf-'f in hollow trees, or exposed roots under hillside rocks. As the first warm days of spring approach, the lady wasp emerges from her hiding. and proceeds to form a fresh nest for her new colony. In the selection of a suitable spot. the common wasp selects a hole or burrow in the ground, which, if not ample enough, is made available by deepening and widening. For nest building she prefers small piaraS of old wood or dried leaf fiber. which by grinding and thoroughly mixing wit Ina secretion from the saliVarY glands Is formed into mass resembling paper- mache when dry and spread out. Under careful manipulation, this soon takes the form of a pillar suspended from a caves roof, at the lower end of which. three deep. hollow cup-shaped cells are made, and one egg laid in each, It is not long before other cells are ad ded. and when the first larvae (grubsl appear, the mothers attention is divided between feeding the young and enlarging and keeping the house clean.
 Suspended in the cell, with it's head down, each grub somewhat resembles a small barrel being thicker in the middle than at either end. The head and body consists of fourteen segments or parts. and it is provided with three teeth set in the mandibles. The mother displays great anxiety in providing for the grubs. and much of her time is consumed in this way All the food given them Is thorough ly mastcated, that indigestion is not known to wasp language and dentistry must be a lost art. On the fourteenth day the larvae cease to feed. and form ing a satin-like covering within the cell resembling mercerized cotton), asume the third or pupae stage This lasts-accord- ing to the weather-about ten days, when the perfect insect merges. In this fashion, 1 from time to time, during tho earlier@ half l of the summer two or three grubs occu-
 DIV in succession Hhe refurbished cells. | Young worked wasps are the first pro- duced and these immediately devote themselves to aiding the mother to en- ! large the comb, clean the nest and feed the new larvae (males and females) dur | ing the last half of the season. These beng much larger than the neutraks or workers require extended cells, and be- gin to appear as greater food supplies come in and the fruit trees ripen Their 1 cells. too, arc carefully kept apart from those of the workers.
 | As with the male bee, tho male wasp | is stingless but unlike the bee. his body | is elongated and he carries longer an- ! tennae than his mate. He dies on the l appppach of fall.
 In the United States and South America there are several families of the Vespa, and about seven species are found in Great Britain. The latter are generally | classified as ground wasps, their habit of i building in ground burrows being dls- ] tinguished from that of the tree build CTS. The nests of tree wasps are much | larger and more round than those of ground colonies, and In the female a l bright yellow adorns the first and front joint of the antennae. l Of all the wasp tribes the most per- sistent and destructive bears the name | Crabro, or hornet, which, in the British | Isles, ls found only in the southern or
 warmer parts. Occurring in numbers In | any country where the willow lime, ! birch ash and alder trees abound, their destructive habits are soon In evidence, l the young branches of these tress are | dexterously gnawed and quickly stripped of their bark for nest construction by l the pests. The best fruit of orchard trees is subjected to great damage by the hornet. and if once intoxicated by fer menting fruit juices, fl becomes madden | ed an1 dangerous.
 All Over the Earth.
 all, about fifty species of the genus ! Nespa are found spread over the earth, l of which Eastern Asia can boast of the landsomest and largest. The MaSnihaa of East India, and the Mandarina of | Japan and China, have winss measur- ing fully two inches across. With it's ! nest of clay, the Orientalis holds sway 1 in Eastern Greece and Egypt, while the ] Polistes store honey in countries bor- i dering the Mediterranean sea. This same species of South America stores only poisonous honey, owing to the na- 1 ture of the flower from which 1t Is gathered. In the same region, the
 pendant nest Gf the Chartergus wasp | is found, closely attached to the bouSf.S of trees, the combs arranged In beau- f tiful fur nel-lke passages, one within ! the other. with spaces between and an | opening to each como leading from gal lery to gallery.
 For those wasps known IS the car niVorous group. nature has instituted somo wise and wonderful provisions. | The larvae must be fed on meat, and I to supply this the mother wasp pro- 1 vides large quantities of caterpillars and numerous other insect grubs. Be- fore placing these in the cells, the 1 parent proceeds by stinging through l the principle nerve ganglion each and | every larva and caterpillar found. The
 insect Is not killed but remains in q
 state Of stupor until the wasp grub l appears and is ready to deVour il.
 Numerous Wasp Enemies.