This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 Excerpt: ...rocks, etc., and catch various kinds of insects which they masticate and feed their young. Four or five specimens of a species of the Sphecidae family were seen on the warmest days flying up and down the road with occasional excursions into the grass bordering the roadway. This wasp when nesting digs a hole in the ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 Excerpt: ...rocks, etc., and catch various kinds of insects which they masticate and feed their young. Four or five specimens of a species of the Sphecidae family were seen on the warmest days flying up and down the road with occasional excursions into the grass bordering the roadway. This wasp when nesting digs a hole in the ground in which it places a grasshopper for food to supply the larva from a single egg when hatched. It is a very interesting sight to watch the operations of these wasps engaged in making the nest and stocking it with food. In another chapter I have given the details of the intelligent actions of some of the wasps while occupied in this work which I had the good fortune to observe on two or three previous occasions. At Deerwood, however, the Sphex had not yet commenced the serious work of their lives. I spent much time following their flights and their actions when on the ground, but so far as I could discover the wasps had no particular object In view other than to enjoy the warm sunshine. I had hoped to witness their actions in capturing a grasshopper, which usually is much larger than themselves. The grasshoppers were about but their presence was ignored by the wasps. The summer and fall in which to work was yet before them, and as the making of a nest and stocking and closing it up after laying the egg is the work of only a few hours or days at the most, they probably reasoned that there was an abundance of time ahead in which to perform the hard work nature demanded of them, and until it was time to begin work they would pass their days in ease--as I saw them. How many nests one of these wasps constructs in the course of a season no one seems to have yet discovered. It must be quite a number, otherwise the species would not persist, for the ...
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Add this copy of Wild Life in California: Some of Its Birds, Animals and to cart. $55.00, good condition, Sold by Wonderland Books rated 1.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1921 by Tribune Publishing Co., Oakland, CA.
