ABSTRACT
Among the numerous and less respectable relatives of the Bee the author includes in this book not only the Hornet but also the Wasp. If there is any insect that deserves the epithet "waspish", it is surely the Wasp. The author shouldn't be surprised if he is called "wasp" because of his waspishness, however much etymologists may assure us it is the other way round. The Wasp is no greater nuisance to us human beings than the House-fly. All this we might well regard with good-humored amusement, were it not that the Wasp has a weapon which the House-fly has not, and that is his sting. When the Wasp plies his sting in real earnest, it isn't so much against human beings as against his cousin the Bee. In his boyish individualism, his vain boasting and bravado, the Wasp is, the quintessential barbarian.
