HYMENOPTERS: WASPS. 133 



each is attached to the one below it by a sort of pillar. 

 The cells contain no honey, but are built for places in 

 which to rear the young. The colony is dissolved on 

 the approach of winter, the males die, and the females 

 seek a sheltered winter retreat. Each female that sur- 

 vives the cold founds a new colony in the spring, builds 

 a few cells, lays her eggs, from which are hatched only 

 workers, which assist the parent, and at length, in au- 

 tumn, three generations have been produced, the last 

 composed of males and females, and the nest has grown 

 from a few cells to one containing thousands. The 

 Hornet is one of the largest of the wasps, and was 

 brought to this country from Europe. 



Some kinds of wasps build an open nest of a few 

 cells, and attach it to some object by a short stem. 

 Other kinds build their nests of mud, and store them 

 with insects for the food of the larvae ; these are the 

 Mud- Wasps. They have the hind body joined to the 

 thorax by a long stem or pedicel, and their color is 

 shining blue, or black, or black and orange, or brown 

 and red. One of the black and orange Mud- Wasps 

 has just built two beautiful mud-cells in the corner of 

 my room. She worked very industriously and rapidly, 

 building a cell in a few hours. Flying in at the open 

 window, with a ball of mud in her mouth, she moved 

 quickly around the room, then flew up to the spot 

 where she was building, and, depositing her mud, 

 shaped it with her jaws with all the care and regular- 

 ity of a perfect mason. The day after she finished 

 the first cell, she filled it with spiders and sealed it 

 over with mud. On opening it to examine the insects 

 stored within, quite a large hole was accidentally made; 

 this she very soon discovered, and began to repair it, 



