“Where did the wasps find this paper?” Frank asked.
“Not ‘wasps,’ Frank, but wasp,” his uncle answered, “for this nest was all built by one wasp. The insect did not find the paper. She made it. It was the wasp who first taught man to make paper.
“The queen wasp awakens from her winter sleep in spring, and at once sets about making her nest. She gathers tiny fragments of wood and bark, chews them up, and mixes them with a fluid from her mouth. This, when it hardens, is paper.
“First she makes a stiff rod, or pillar, of paper. This hangs down from the branch and forms the centre of the nest. Round this are built the walls of her house.
“Observe, boys, that there are two distinct walls of paper, one inside the other; and there is a wide air space between them all the way round. The entrance to the nest is at the bottom. Round the centre pillar there is a little thing shaped like an opened umbrella. If you look underneath this, you will see something curious, I think.”
“Oh,” said Frank, “it is divided into six cells, and in each cell there is a small, stout maggot or grub. I can see them moving.”
“These are the young wasps,” said Uncle George. “Like your butterflies and caddis flies, the wasp passes through egg, larva (or caterpillar), and pupa stage before it becomes a perfect insect. These are in the larva stage but, unlike your caterpillars, they have no legs, and they cannot feed themselves.”
“Then the mother wasp must have laid an egg in each cell,” said Frank, “and these grubs hatched out of them.”
“That is so,” said Uncle George. “You see what a clever and industrious creature a wasp is. To build this beautiful nest all alone and unaided, and to rear and feed her helpless grubs, is a task indeed.”
“What are the wasp grubs fed on?” asked Frank.