Wasps, Social and Solitary

Name: Wasps, Social and Solitary
Author: Peckham, George W. (George Williams)

Peckham, George W. (George Williams)

Wasps

POMPILUS QUINQUENOTATUS                                            199

  EPEIRA STRIX PARALYZED AND HUNG UP ON BEAN
  PLANT BY POMPILUS QUINQUENOTATUS, OUT OF
  THE WAY OF ANTS                                                    203

  NEST OF P. QUINQUENOTATUS                                          213

  POMPILUS MARGINATUS                                                223

  THE HOME–COMING OF SCELESTUS                                       241

  NEST OF AGENIA BOMBYCINA                                           244

  LYCOSA KOCHII, FOUND IN NEST OF AGENIA BOMBYCINA
                                                                     245

  TACHYTES                                                           249

  NEST OF TACHYTES                                                   251

  CHLORION AND THE INDISCREET CRICKET                                257

  HORIZONTAL CELLS OF THE MUD–DAUBER                                 271

  COURSE FOLLOWED BY POMPILUS FUSCIPENNIS IN
  FINDING HER SPIDER, AND IN RETRACING HER
  STEPS TO THE NEST                                                  283

  LOCALITY STUDY OF ASTATA BICOLOR                                   288

  LOCALITY STUDY OF ASTATA UNICOLOR                                  289

  SECOND LOCALITY STUDY OF ASTATA UNICOLOR                           290

  PARALYZED SPIDER HUNG UP ON SORREL BY QUINQUENOTATUS
  WHILE SHE DIGS HER NEST                                            295




Introduction


NOT long since I wrote to a friend, a nature lover, as follows: “The
most charming monograph in any department of our natural history that I
have read in many a year is on our solitary wasps, by George W. Peckham
and his wife, of Wisconsin,—a work so delightful and instructive that
it is a great pity it is not published in some popular series of
nature books, where it could reach its fit audience, instead of being
handicapped as a State publication.” This end has now been brought
about, and the book—revised and enlarged with much new material and
many new illustrations—placed within easy reach of all nature lovers,
to whom it gives me pleasure to commend it. It is a wonderful record
of patient, exact, and loving observation, which has all the interest
of a romance. It opens up a world of Lilliput right at our feet,
wherein the little people amuse and delight us with their curious human
foibles and whimsicalities, and surprise us with their intelligence
and individuality. Here I had been saying in print that I looked upon
insects as perfect automata, and all of the same class as nearly alike
as the leaves of the trees or the sands upon the beach. I had not
reckoned with the Peckhams and their solitary wasps. The solitary ways
of these insects seem to bring out their individual traits, and they
differ one from another, more than any other wild creatures known
to me. It has been thought that man is the only tool–using animal,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Wasps, Social and Solitary

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