Wasps, Social and SolitaryPeckham, George W. (George Williams)
Science
Wasps, Social and Solitary
Peckham, George W. (George Williams)
Wasps
On successive days we substituted red for yellow, green for red, and
so on, always with similar results, although the wasps became more and
more accustomed to the vicissitudes of their life, and after a time
seemed to look for the hole itself without relying upon the color to
guide them. They found their nest under a color new to them much more
readily than when the paper was taken entirely away and the ground
left exposed. Once when the green paper was around their nest, and the
wind blew it over the hole so that they could not enter, at least
one hundred collected, many of them settling in the false nest; when
we lifted the green paper, leaving the hole free, only three or four
entered, but when we put it back in place they rushed in six or seven
at a time. It was plainly the color that directed them.
This was a nearly rainless summer,—a condition extremely favorable
to wasp development. Nests multiplied and grew until the whole
country–side complained, and no wonder, for houses were full of them,
and at mealtimes they gathered at the table with the members of the
family. How did they know when dinner was ready? It could not have been
by the sight, unfamiliar to them, of cooked food; was it, then, through
the sense of smell?
Many were the questions that we asked in vain of our Vespas, but here
was one that they could readily be made to answer. We rolled up two
bundles, one of nothing but gauze, and another, like it in appearance,
but containing some warm chicken bones; these were laid to one side of
the nest, the color of the gauze matching that of the paper on which
it was placed. The wasps in returning to the nest, even though loaded
with food, could not resist the appetizing odor, and settled thickly
upon the bone bundle, trying their best to penetrate within, while
the empty gauze was unnoticed. As the bones grew cold and dry they
attracted less attention, but two days later they were occasionally
visited.
Having killed two wasps that had alighted on the ground, by striking
them with a folded paper, we took them up and placed one of them at a
distance, so that it was entirely hidden in the grass. Five settled
above it, and after they had carried it away the place was visited by
several others, while the spot upon which we had killed them drew to it
nine wasps within fifteen minutes. Thus they seemed very keen of scent
where animal matter was concerned; but the powerful oils of peppermint
and wintergreen, although noticed, aroused little attention, perhaps
because they indicated nothing of interest to them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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