Wasps, Social and SolitaryPeckham, George W. (George Williams)
Science
Wasps, Social and Solitary
Peckham, George W. (George Williams)
Wasps
A month later we found Crabro lentus nesting in the ground. Her
tunnel ran down obliquely for six and one half centimeters, and had
an enlargement at the end. Two bugs and a fly were in the nest, when
we opened it before the provision was completed. To find sexmaculatus
taking both flies and gnats was surprising, so rigid are the family
traditions of the wasps; still, she might feel that so long as she drew
the line at Diptera she was all right. But to believe that one wasp, a
Crabro, too, with all the marks of conservatism about her, would take
such diverse things as bugs and flies, is almost too much to believe.
It is true that Crabro wesmæli is said to use both flies and bugs;[4]
but some accident may have led to this supposition, and stronger
evidence is needed to prove that there is variability in so deeply
seated an instinct.
[Illustration: CRABRO AND HER WHITE MOTHS]
The Crabro wasps all have pleasant ideas as to where they want to
live, but interruptus excels in the choice of a dwelling place. We
lately found ten or twelve of them in Milwaukee, nesting in an old log
on the shore of Lake Michigan, and when they opened their doors in
the morning they had before them the splendor of the great bay; but
calm in the midst of the glory they never paused on the threshold, as
Cerceris would have done, to take a look at the world before going to
work. One morning the earliest riser in our little colony was beginning
the day at half past nine. Of good size for a Crabro, with a square
determined–looking head and very direct and business–like manners, she
proceeded to cut out a new chamber for provisioning. These chambers are
nothing more than enlargements of the long gallery, such as are made
in stems by related species. At ten o’clock she departed on a hunting
excursion among the bushes on the bank above us, and came back in eight
minutes, carrying, much to our surprise, a white–winged moth, which
was clasped under the body by the second and third pairs of legs, and
was passed back to the third pair as she alighted before entering. A
moth is an innovation, a delicacy new to the accepted idea of what a
Crabro larder, accustomed to Diptera, should contain. A moment later
she was off again, but this time did not succeed so quickly, coming
back twice empty–handed for brief visits, and bringing in a load at
the end of half an hour. It took six moths to provision the cell, and
as the number neared completion her interest and energy seemed to wax
greater, the hunting intervals shortening to five, and even to two
minutes. We found afterwards that some of the moths were alive and some
dead, and that she packed them lengthwise, one after another, into the
closely fitting chamber. At a little before eleven o’clock the cell
was filled, and the wasp retired from sight, closing the door behind
her. We thought that she was resting, but presently the protrusion of
wood dust showed that she was enlarging her house, and an hour later
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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