Identifier: waspstheirways00morl (find matches)
Title: Wasps and their ways
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Morley, Margaret Warner, 1858-1923
Subjects: Wasps
Publisher: New York : Dodd, Mead and company
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

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52 WASPS AND THEIR WAYS but flowers like those of a huckleberry,though larger. Indeed these flowers are just largeenough to allow the hungry Vespa to gether head into the nectar stored at the bot-tom of the little flower urn. The Menzesia grows in the AlleghanyMountains, and one lovely mountain topin Virginia in the spring is covered withbeautiful bushes of it, every flowercluster having its little band of waspvotaries. The pretty snowberry blossoms thatmake charming the northern mountainsare also wasp flowers. This dainty littleplant creeps over mossy banks, and in Mayand June puts forth the small whiteflowers that are succeeded by snowy ber-ries having a flavour of birch. The pretty bell-shaped blossoms are ofthe right size to accommodate the head ofVespa, and she has the good taste to befond of snowberry honey.
Text Appearing After Image:
ALLEGHANY MENZESIA WASP-FLOWERS 53 The sweet-clover also yields its deli-cious nectar to the short tongues of thehornets and yellow-jackets, — a fact ofwhich they are not slow to take advan-tage, as the visitors buzzing about thesweet-clover beds that line many roadsidesbear witness. Vespa enjoys the goldenrods too, and inthe fall of the year may be captured quiteeasily as she buries her face in the pollenymasses, oblivious for once to whoever maybe coming near with suspended net andevil intent. It is commonly said that wasps areattracted to flowers having a disagreeableor meat-like odour. This maybe true to some extent, thoughit seems probable that the structure of theflower has more influence upon the visitsof wasps than the odour. Certain flies doprefer ill-smelling flowers, and the wasps,finding the nectar of these flat-toppedblooms obtainable by their short tongues, 54 WASPS AND THEIRWAYS may visit them also, though they by nomeans confine their attention to such. They may not

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