On the Instincts and Habits of the Solitary Wasps
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£'nt. Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. E. A. BIKGE, Director. BULLETIN NO. 2. SCIENTIFIC SERIES NO. 1. / INSTINCTS AND HABITS SOLITARY WASPS BY '„^c'^ George w. peckham and' Elizabeth G. Peckham. ^ • '/I MADISON, WIS. MAY 2 1 1984 PUBLISHED BY THE STATE 1898 TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page. Ammophila and her Caterpillars .... 6 CHAPTER II. The Great Golden Digger (Sphex ichneumonea) . 33 CHAPTER in. The Inhabitants op an Old Stump (Rhopalutn pecUcella- tmn and Stigmus americanus) ..... 42 CHAPTER IV. The Toilers op the Night {Crabro stirpicola) . 46 CHAPTER V. Two Spider Hunters [Salhcs conicus and Aporus fasci- atus) ......... 53 CHAPTER VI. An Island Settlement [Bembex spinolae) ... 58 CHAPTER VII. The Little Flycatcher [Oxybelus quadrinotatus) . 73 CHAPTER VIII. The Wood-Borers [Trypoxylon albopilosum and Trypoxy- lon rubrocincturn^ . 77 CHAPTER IX. The Bug-Hunters (^Astata unicolor and Astata bicolor) . 88 iv CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. Page. The Diodonti ........ 99 CHAPTER XI. Some Grave Diggers [Cerceris and Pfiilanthus) . 108 CHAPTER XII. Spider The Ravishers {Pomjnlns and Agenia) . 125 CHAPTER XIII. The Enemies of the Orthoptera . .167 CHAPTER XIV. (Pelopaeus) . The Mud- Daubers . .176 CHAPTER XV. Extracts From Marchal's Monograph on Cerceris or- NATA 200 CHAPTER XVI. On the Sense of Direction in Wasps . .211 CHAPTER XVII. The Stinging Habit in Wasps 220 CHAPTER XVIII. Conclusions . ..... 228 WISCONSIN GEOL.AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. BULLETIN II Pi J- H Ernerron del. SORIWttSTfRHUIKJCO. PLATE I. Fig. 1. Pompilus marginatus ? 2. , X Fig. 2. Pompilus fuscipennis ? ^• , X Fig. 3. Philanthus punctatus 2. ? , X Fig. 4. Astata hicolo7- 2. ? , X Fig. 5. stirjncola ? 2. Crabro , X Fig. 6. spinolae 2. Bembex ? , X Fig. 7. quinquenotatus 2. Pompilus ? , X Fig. 8. 2. Ceroeris clypeata ? , X WISCONSIN GEOL.AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. E3ULLETIN II PL. II J. H. Emerron del. HWrn«STERNllTHCl W PLATE II. Fig. 1. Harpactopus abdominaUs f , natural size. Fig. 2. A')n')nophila urnaria ? , natural size. Fig. 3, Chlorion coeruleum $ , natural size. Fig. 4. Sphex iohneumonca 2 , natural size. Fig. 5. Pelopaeus ceyyientarius ? , natural size. PREFACE. The work that has served as a basis for this volume has ex- tended over several years, and has been done in Wisconsin, at the residence of Dr. Charles A. Leuthstrom, to whose forbear- ance in allowing iis to use his gardens as a hunting-ground, we are greatly indebted. The field is a most favorable one since :an island in the lake close by, acres of woodland all about, and a farm with two vegetable gardens, one on the top of a hill and one on lower ground, offer a rich variety of nesting places. It is in the lower garden, which is bounded by woods, that the wasps are found in greatest abundance. The study of the solitary wasps was suggested to us by those most interesting and delightful of all entomological papers, the "Souvenirs Entomologiques" of J. H. Fabre, and however widely our conclusions may differ, we have for M. Fabre and for his work, the deepest respect and admiration. We wish to express our indebtedness to Mr. W. H. Ashmead of Washington, for his cordial interest in the work and for his kindness in identifying for us the various species. Milwaukee, October 30, 1897. INSTINCTS AND HABITS OF THE SOLITARY WASPS. INTROBtrCTION. Eor the purposes of tliis work wasps may be divided into two classes, the social and the solitary. Of these, those of the latt^ class are much the more numerous, there being over one thou- sand species in the United States alone, while there are only about fifty species of the social genera. That the social kinds axe better known is due to the fact that the great size to which their communities often attain makes it comparatively easy to study them. The social wasps most commonly met with in Wisconsin are the hornets and yellow-jackets of the genus Yespa, and a species of Polistes that builds op^n combs. For the sake of comparison let us sum up briefly the cycle of their lives. In the autumn the queens, having mated with the drones, creep away into crevices and sheltered comers where they pass the winter. In the spring they may be seen seeking for suitable nesting places, and forming, from the fibres of weather- beaten wood, which are scraped off and chewed up, the first layer of ceils. So much being accomplished the queen deposits her eggs, one in each cell, and when these develop into grubs she feeds them until at the end of a week or ten days they spin their cocoons and become pupae. In from eight to ten days the perfect wasp is formed and emerges from its cell ready to assume its share of responsi- bility in the work of the nest. These first wasps are always neuters, and hereafter all the duties which the queen has been obliged to perfonn, with the single exception of egg-laying, fall 4 THE SOLITARY WASPS. upon tliem. Before long many liimdreds of neuters are busj at work, no drones appearing until the summer is somewhat advanced. While the warm weather lasts the nest continues to inciiease in size and numbers, but in the first cool days of fall the neuters and queens desert it, leaving the helpless drones and undeveloped grubs to starve. The neuters, after leading a wandering life for two or thi-ee weeks, perish with the first frosts, the queens alone being left, and doubtless many of these also die in the severe cold winter. The solitary wasps differ from the social, in having only two sexes. Each female makes a separate nest and provisions it by her own labor; and in many cases a new nest is made for each egg. There is no cooperation among them, although in certain genera, as Petopaeus and Bemhex, a number of individu- als build close together, forming a colony. The nests may be made of mud and attached, for shelter, under leaves, rocks, or eaves of buildings, or may be burrows hollowed out in the ground, in trees or in the stems of plants. The adult wasp lives upon fruit or nectar but the yoimg grub or larva must have ani- mal food, and here the parent wasp shows a rigid conservatism, each species providing the sort of food that has been approved. by its family for generations, one taking flies, another bugs, and another beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, locusts, spi- ders, cockroaches, aphides or other creatures, as the case may be. The solitaiy wasps mate shortly after leaving the nest, in the spring or summer. The males are irresponsible creatures, aiding little, if at all, in the care of the family. When the egg-laying time arrives the female secures her prey, which she either kills or paralyzes, places it in the nest, lays the egg upon it, and then, in most cases, closes the hole and takes no further interest in it, going on to make new nests from day to day. In some genera the female maintains a longer connection with her offspring, not bringing all the provision at once but returning to feed the larva as it grows, and only leaving the nest permanently when the grub has spun its cocoon and become a pupa. % The egg develops in from one to three days into a footless, INTROD UCTION. 5 maggot-like creature wliicli feeds upon the store provided for it, increasing rapidly in size, and entering tlie pupal stage in from three days to two weeks. In the cocoon it passes through its final metamorphosis, emerging as a perfect insect, perhaps in two or three weeks, or, in many cases, after the winter months have passed and summer has come again. Probably no solitary wasp lives through the winter, those that come out in the spring or summer perishing in the autumn. The social hymenoptera are born into a community, and their mental processes may be modified and assisted by education and imitation, but the solitary wasp (with rare exceptions) comes into the world absolutely alone. It has no knowledge of its progenitors, which have perished long before, and no relations with others of its kind. It must then depend entirely upon its inherited instincts to determine the form of its activities, and although these instincts are much more flexible than has been generally supposed, and are often modified by individual judg- ment and experience, they are still so complex and remarkable as to offer a wide field for study and speculation. THE SOLITARY WASPS. CHAPTER I. AMMOPHILA AND HER CATERPILLARS. Plates II., fig. 2; III.; IV.; V.; VIIL, figs. 1-4. Most graceful and attractive of all the wasps— "taille effil^e tourmire svelte,'' as Fabre describes them, the Ammophiles, of all the inhabitants of the garden, hold the first place in our af- fections. Not so beautiful as the blue Pelopaens nor so indus- trious as the little red-girdled Trypo.ryJon, their intelligence, their distinct individuality, and their obliging tolerance of our society make them an unfailing source of interest. They are, moreover, the most remarkable of all genera in their stinging habits, and few things have given us deeper pleasure than our success in following the activities and penetrating the secrets of their lives. In our neighborhood we have but two species of Ammophila, urnaria Cresson (PL II., fig. 2), and gracilis Cres- son, both of them being very slender bodied wasps of about an inch in length, gracilis all black, and irrnaria with a red band around the front end of the abdomen. With two exceptions our observations relate to 'urnaria. During the earlier part of the summer we had often seen these wasps feeding upon the nectar of flowers, especially upon that of the sorrel of which they are particularly fond, but at that time we gave them but passing notice.