WASP. 
286 
right pillars, and the exterior surface of the nest 
consists of a great many layers or pieces, disposed 
over each other in such a manner as best to secure 
the interior cavity from the effects of cold and 
moisture: the whole nest, comprizing both walls 
and cells, is composed of a substance very much 
resembling the coarser kinds of whitish-brown 
paper, and consists of the fibres of various dry 
vegetable substances, agglutinated by a tenacious 
fluid discharged from the mouths of the insects 
during their operations. The female Wasps de- 
posit their eggs in the cells, one in each cell ap- 
propriated for that purpose: from these are hatch- 
ed the.larvcC or maggots, which bear a near re- 
semblance to those of Bees: they are fed by the 
labouring wasps with a coarse kind of honey, and, 
when arrived at their full size, close up their re- 
spective cells with a fine tissue of silken filaments, 
and, after a certain period, emerge in their com- 
plete or perfect form. The male insect, like the 
male Bee, is destitute of a sting. The society or 
swarm of the common Wasp consists of a vast 
number of neutral or labouring insects, a much 
smaller number of males, still fewer females. They 
do not, like Bees, prepare and lay up a store of 
honey for winter use, but the few which survive 
the season of their birth remain torpid during the 
colder months. Wasps in general are both car- 
nivorous and frugivorous. 
The Hornet^ Fespa Crahro of Linmeus is a 
species of a far more formidable nature than the 
common Was}), and is of considerably larger si?e ; 
