Wasp

wosp, a member of an order of stinging insects allied to the bee and ant. There are in North America about 1,700 species of wasps arranged in 17 families. The wasp has two pairs of wings. The hind wing is the smaller and is fastened to the front wing by hooks. When at rest the wings of true wasps are folded like a fan. The so-called digger-wasps with flat wings make nests for their young in the ground or in the pith of elder and sumach. Other nests are built of mud in sheltered positions. The female stings a spider or some other insect until it is paralyzed, not dead, and thrusts it into her burrow. She then lays an egg in its body and retires, sealing up the burrow. Of the true wasps, the solitary or mud-wasp has the same habits. Comstock states that the solitary wasp plastered up a number of keyholes in his doors and bureau drawers one summer. Nests of the mud-wasp may be found without difficulty around houses and farm buildings. Some species bore holes into the pith of shrubs or into solid wood in which they deposit an insect and an egg, then build a partition, followed by an insect and an egg, and so on till the burrow is full.

Common social wasps build a large number of parallel cells placed like the cells of a honeycomb. These nests are built in the ground, or are attached to trees, bushes, fences, or buildings. The material of which they build is composed of lint or wood scraped fine and glued into thin gray sheets. The wasp is said with justice to be the oldest papermaker known. The entire collection of cells is wrapped with a large protective envelope of several thicknesses. Underground nests are made of yellow, brittle paper. An egg is placed at the bottom of each cell. Social wasps feed their young on insects well masticated, on sweets from flowers, and on honey dew from aphids, being in their habits between the ant and bee. Two types of social or true wasps are familiar. The first have long, slender waists. Their paper comb hangs by a slight stem, like a wide, shallow goblet, from a ceiling or other overhead surface. The second type, known popularly as hornets or yellow-jackets, are stouter, more like a bee, and build large gray spherical nests hanging by a large neck. When they need more room they tear out a side of the nest, build on more cells, and carry a new protecting wall around the addition. Several horizontal combs are connected, and separated by fine galleries. Hornets are excellent housekeepers. The family is organized on the same plan as a colony of bees into queens, drones, and workers. Comstock adds, "The species of this genus enclose the combs of their nest with a spherical paper envelope."

See Ant-Bee