The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

Our Work.

House of Education.--Miss Gardner (Dudley Mansions, 29, Abbey Road, London, N.W.) has just finished a delightful and stimulating course of lectures to the students on Mrs. Curwen's system of teaching the piano, embodied in the Child Pianist. It is impossible to speak too highly of the educational value of this method, and, what is not less important, of the delight it affords the pupil. The students have become fired with Miss Gardner's enthusiasm and look forward to the piano lessons, which are often the worst drudgery of the school-room.

Parents' Review School.--We are glad our pupils should have enjoyed the benefit of "Aunt Mai's" criticism of their work. The Editor would like to say here how grateful she is to Mrs. F. Steinthal for having taken up the work of the Parents' Review School, and so ably edited the Parents' Review during her illness and subsequent absence.

Report of Parents' Review School Examination.--On the whole the papers are very satisfactory. Some of the children take too many subjects for their age, and some have done their Latin papers well and their English badly. Christian and surname, age and class should be written at the top right hand corner of the paper on each subject. The sheets should be fastened.

Mothers' Education Course.--The fifth examination connected with this course is now in progress. This is a good time for new members to join.

House of Education Natural History Club.--Notes by M.L. Hodgson.--The Diploptera.--Like their relations the bees, we may divide wasps into social and solitary wasps.

The common wasp (Vespa Vulgaris) is only too well known, but for all that, its life history is none the less most interesting. Early in the spring a few large wasps may be noticed flying about; these are the solitary females who have survived the long cold winter, and are now busily engaged in surveying banks and hedges in order to find a suitable spot in which to found a colony. You will observe that the greatest care is taken in choosing a promising site--in and out of every likely hole, buzzing and fussing goes the eager little creature, until finding a deserted rat or mouse run, she proceeds to begin constructing her nest. Like the humble bee, the first grubs all form working wasps able to assist in the arduous labours of forming the colony. In this country we have other members of the family Vespidoe--the hornet (Vespa Crabo) and the wood wasp (Vespa Sylvestris). The hornet, which is remarkable for its large size, usually builds its nest in hollow trees. It is constructed on the same principle as the wasp's nest, tiers of brown paper cells separated from each other by short thick pillars, beautifully adapted by their form for perfect support. The wood wasp builds its nest suspended from the branches of a tree. The entire colony is encased in numerous layers of paper, which effectually protects it from the vicissitudes of the weather. In the same way Vespa Vulgaris completely encloses the nest in paper walls so as to prevent the soil from falling in.

Of the next family, the Eumenidae, the best known is the wall wasp (Odynerus parietum), which may be seen haunting sunny banks and walls, where it builds its nest, or, as is sometimes the case in other members of the family, a bramble stem is selected, and beautifully constructed cells are arranged in the hollow of the stem. We have not so many solitary wasps, perhaps, as we have bees, but still there are sufficient to give you plenty to do if you have courage enough to study their habits and dwellings. The solitary wasps are said to be reluctant to use their sting even when handled. I may as well mention here that the wasp's sting is constructed on the same principle as the bee's, i.e., it has a grooved dart with lancets, feelers, and poison gland--the main difference is that the humble bee's sting is curved and the wasp's is straight. The sting is of the greatest importance to its owner, as I will show you later on.

Fossores.--In this section we have a large number of families; amongst them many of whom very little is known. The family Crabronidoe or sand wasps is very well represented in this country, as I find we have some thirty species. Crabro cribrarius is the largest. I have seen a hard patch of sand perfectly riddled with its solitary burrows. Each of the families seem to confine themselves to one species of food, e.g., bee-eating, fly-eating, grasshopper-eating, etc. The families also vary in colour and markings; some are black, banded with yellow, entirely black, sometimes black with a red base to the abdomen. A common wasp is Pompilus fuscus. It is described as being about half an inch long, black, with the first three segments of the abdomen red, banded with black; it is a burrower like the rest of the fossores, and may be seen early in spring in sandy places. All the wasps are insect feeders. The solitary wasp provisions its nest by paralysing the selected food; each cell has just enough food placed in it to last the grub during its period of growth. Thin-skinned creatures such as spiders and flys are only slightly stung, while those who select horny food, such as a beetle or chafer, sting them to death, as it takes a little time for the horny exterior to soften sufficiently for the young grub. Most interesting accounts of the way in which wasps seize and sting their prey have been written. One especially written by Fabre, which is given at length in The Industries of Animals, page 124. Wasps have been observed to bite a hole at the end of a leaf-roller's tube and then to go to the other end and frighten out the caterpillars. As soon as an insect is seized it is stung in order to render the transport easier. I must now refer you to "Workers without Wage," "Underground," "The Industries of Animals," the current numbers of "Knowledge," and the little book on this subject in the "Young Collector's Series." For further information, the articles in "Knowledge" are exceedingly good, most clearly and carefully written. You will, I am sure, find this subject of great interest if you will read the articles for yourselves.

Typed by Chrysanthanum, Sep. 2024