COMMUNAL LIFE 



rejoice more and more in the fullness of life. The en- 

 trance to the Vespa nest was but an inch across; and once 

 when they were going in and out in a hurrying throng, 

 jostling each other in their eagerness, we counted the 

 number that passed, one taking the entrances and one 



WASP EATING 



the exits. In ten minutes five hundred and ninety-two 

 left the nest and two hundred and forty-seven went in, 

 so that we saw eight hundred and thirty-nine or about 

 eighty to the minute. This must be a strong swarm, 

 wonderful indeed when we thought that it had all come 

 from a single queen mother. We imagined how she had 

 made an early start, digging a hole in the ground, build- 

 ing within it a paper comb with five or six cells around a 



3 



