Product Code Database
This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index
Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1918. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... chapter xiii The Mining And Other Wasps Of The Family Eumenidae Odynerus geminus Cress. S. A. Rohwer. Certainly one of the daintiest pieces of work executed by the solitary wasps is the little turret built by Odynerns geminus. This is a neat little chimney, built of pellets of mud plastered one upon another, surmounting the wasp''s burrow in the ground. It is a little less than three-eighths inch in diameter, outside measurement, very thin and delicate, rough on the outside, showing the delineation of each pellet of mud as it was superimposed upon the other, but smooth on the inside; the interior diameter of one-fourth inch is just the same as the hole in the earth beneath it--in fact, it is merely a built-up continuation of this hole. The turret rises to a height of about three-fourths inch above the surface of the ground, then turns at a right angle and extends in a horizontal course for the same length. The completed turret looks just like a miniature elbow of a stovepipe (see fig. 54). The wasp has a pretty way of entering this novel tunnel; she stands beneath the turret, gently lifts the front part of her body until the first pair of legs can reach the edges of the chimney, and thus holding on she deftly raises the body and climbs in. The gallery beneath this quaint architecture is clear-cut, Fig. 54. The turret over the burrow of Odynerus geminus. Twice natural size. about one-fourth inch in diameter and two inches in total length. It goes straight downward for half its length, then turns abruptly, usually forming an angle of approximately 6o with the perpendicular, although occasionally this angle approaches a right angle. The end of this channel is very slightly wider than the upper portion, and forms one of the pockets which make up the nest (see fig...
|
|
