The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1940-07-18

tional value. After one or
~ two experiences with these
concealed weapons, the per-
sonality of the little sting
wielders is firmly impressed
upon you.
It is quite proper to regard the
wasps and hornets with respect as
they insist you shall. But do not
let their potent personalities pre1u-
dice you against them. For 1t is
within this group, taken in the
broadest sense, that is found the
cleverest and most ingenious OF an
the insects, as well as the most
efficient and destructive enemies OF
our insect pests.
The cleverness and ingenuity OF
wasps take numerous forms. Each
of the many thousands of different
kinds has its own little speclalty
which differs more or less from that
of every other kind. Among these
specialties few are more fascinating
than those of the various digger
wasps that burrow in the ground
and lay up in little chambers food
upon which their young subsist.
Look closely into the habits OF
some of the common digger wasps
and see what they are doing IN that
sultry season when you can think
only of vacation, for it is then that
they display the greatest energy.
Familiar to everyone in the hot,
still, midsummer days is the mo-
notonous shrin song of the clcada.
Hornets Prey on Cicadas.
Once in a while one of these mo-
notonous trills stops suddenly. You
hear a discordant shrek that star
ties you for moment. Then all is
| the same again-the heat and the
interminable trills of the cicadas.
What has happened? One of Ma
ture's little tragedies. A cicada has
been surprised by cicada-killer,
has fed shrieking away, and in all
probability has been caught and
stung, not to death, but into state
Of complete helplessness.
The cicada-killer is one of the
largest and most conspicuous, as
well as one of the commonest, of
burrowing wasps. To many people
| it is known as hornet-in fact, the
homeland is much feared. But it
is not at all aggressive. 1t resents
undue familiarity, of course, but its
nature is wholly eaceful-except
| when cicadas are concerned.
Cicadas are its only prey. Some
times you see it flying about tree,
hunting for a victim up among the
branches, or pursuing cicada at
high speed through the air. But it is
usually noticed dragging a cicada,
often much larger than itself, along
the ground on the way to its burrow.
| This nursery is commonly made
in the higher and drier portions of
lawns, or in sloping grassy banks.
| and runs to a more or less spheri-
| cal cell about an inch and half in
diameter. The finished nursery usu-
ally includes four cells.
After each cell is completed the
l
pedition. In bringing the cicada to
the cell she frequently hoists her
victim laboriously up a tree, from
which she flies diagonally down to-
ward her burrow. Thus she saves
much time and energy, for dragging
a creature as large as a cicada
through the grass is herculear
task even for SO powerful wasp,
Usually, though not invariably, a
second cicada is added to the first
After the cicadas-still alive but
helpless-are stored safely in the
underground cell, the wasp places
an egg on the body of one of them
just under one of the middle legs
then closes the cell with earth.
Weeks Food for the Grubs.
The egg matches in three days
and the grub feeds on the cicada:
for a little over a week. 1t ther
makes a cocoon of earth, mixee
with enough silk to make it rathe,
dense, and spends the winter inside
In the spring, after passing through
the pupa stage, the wasp digs it
way out of the ground.
The cicada-killers that you Sc,
walking or flying about a grass,
slope are living evidence of the nu
merous tragedies that have take
place beneath the sod.
Only the young of this wasp fee
on cicadas. The adults, as is tn
case with nearly all the wasps, ar
vegetarians. For many days afte
emerging from the ground. the C