Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1916 — PECULIAR SPECIMEN OF WASP [ARTICLE]

PECULIAR SPECIMEN OF WASP

In.-.ect That Is Becoming More Com mon in England Not Pretty Thing to Look At. The other day a fearsome Insect made Its appearance In the window of a local chemist’s shop, relates ths London Chronicle. The chemist, placing a little chloroform wad near the invader, soon reduced it to a comatose condition. In color and shape it was much like a giant hornet, with a very long sting. It was a specimen of the giant-tailed wasp (Sirex gigans), which is getting much more common than it was some years ago. The larva is a wood-feeder, and is supposed to have been introduced to Great Britain in foreign timber. The perfect insect is about two inches in length, has four membra, nous wings, and long, yellow antennae. The body is blueblack, with yellow stripes, and the long boring apparatus used by the insect for piercing a hole into the timber in which to deposit its eggs has, to the uninitiated, the appearance of a terrible sting. When hatched, the grub bores its way into the interior of the timber, where it enjoys itself for years, or even longer.