WASPS SOCIAL AND SOLITARY [Illustration: Page 266 PELOPÆUS ON NEST, GROUP OF FINISHED CELLS, AND TUBE OPENED TO SHOW SPIDERS] WASPS SOCIAL AND SOLITARY BY GEORGE W. PECKHAM AND ELIZABETH G. PECKHAM WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BURROUGHS _ILLUSTRATIONS BY JAMES H. EMERTON_ “Bold sons of air and heat, untamed, untired.”—ILIAD, Book XVII [Illustration: LOGO] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1905 COPYRIGHT 1905 BY GEORGE W. PECKHAM AND ELIZABETH G. PECKHAM ALL RIGHTS RESERVED _Published April, 1905_ NOTE A PART of the matter presented in this volume was published several years ago by the Wisconsin Biological Survey, under the title “Instincts and Habits of the Solitary Wasps.” These chapters have been revised and modified, and new matter based upon later work has been added, in the hope that in their present less technical form the observations recorded will be of interest to the general reader. For a number of the text cuts used in this volume we are indebted to the courtesy of Dr. E. A. Birge, Director of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. COMMUNAL LIFE 1 II. AMMOPHILA AND HER CATERPILLARS 15 III. THE GREAT GOLDEN DIGGER 56 IV. SEVERAL LITTLE WASPS 72 V. CRABRO 97 VI. AN ISLAND SETTLEMENT 119 VII. THE BURROWERS 141 VIII. THE WOOD–BORERS 178 IX. THE SPIDER–HUNTERS 196 X. THE ENEMIES OF THE GRASSHOPPER 248 XI. WORKERS IN CLAY 265 XII. SENSE OF DIRECTION 275 XIII. INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE 292 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE PELOPÆUS ON NEST, GROUP OF FINISHED CELLS, AND TUBE OPENED TO SHOW SPIDERS (page 266) _Frontispiece_