From the archives of the Clark County Observer, March 27th, 2001

When one thinks of Wasps, the first thing they usually think of are the yellow and black insects that fly around during the summer months polenating the flowers. However, as this weeks “Local History” column tells us, Clark County had some rather interesting critters that crawled around the landscape at one point in time.

Perhaps it was the Native Americans who first started the stories about their ancestors and their ability to see the future, but whoever started it, they used a native life form almost solely located at this area of the world. The Native Americans called the creatures Fain Wasps, and what drawings we have of these creatures show them to be almost beetle-like in nature. The outer shell of the creature is, according to the pictures, covered in a red and blue zigzag pattern, while the legs appear to be crooked ending in Pincers that look stronger than a crabs. According to the Native Americans, the creature goes through three stages of life, the first being the Egg stage. During the egg stage, the eggs remain dormant until a certain environmental stimulus is reached, causing them to develop into the chrysalis stage. However, the egg stage is important to several scientists in a very specialized research field.

In the study of Aeolian Chronosemes, according to Doctor Orlando Laswell, “When mixed in a certain solution, the egg of the fain wasp becomes as glass – open to the possibilities of the universe, eternally resonant. Placing a handful of such treated shells within a hollowed beaker of the purest lead and shaking it has produced the most startling results: particles of what I refer to as “raw possibility” flake away, as if treated with grit in a tumbling rock apparatus. The remainder? Scenes such as could never be imagined by the mortal mind, engraved in miniature upon the crystalline spheres!”

Once the environmental stimulus is triggered, the creature would move into the Chrysalis stage, where the egg opens up. This reveals the young Fain Wasp has formed a cocoon made of Kelrite, in which the young Fain Wasp will be provided nutrients for the next two weeks while the creature grows.

The third and final stage is the Mature Fain Wasp, where it’s shell has hardened and it is able to go out and find food. The Mature Fain Wasp eats other insects, as well as plants. The Shell is made out of Cerate, which makes it durable against attacks.

However, it appears that the Fain Wasp was apparently wiped out during the last Ice Age, as there is currently no indication as to what the natural environmental stimulus is. All that have ever been found to give any proof to the existence of this interesting animal are the fossilized eggs, as well as trace amounts of Cerate Shells.

Eriek Flogger is a historian for the Clark County Observer