AFFECTION FOR THE YOUNG. 525 



the development of the male and female eggs which the old mother 

 has laid in the interim is proceeding, while the neuters continue to 

 increase the nest. The perfect males and females remain for some 

 time in the nest, and it is only towards the end of the summer that they 

 quit it. They now pair, after which the males die, but the females 

 prepare for their hybernation. After the males and females have 

 quitted the nest the community appears to have lost its importance, 

 the neuters disperse, and soon die for want of food ; the nest itself 

 then loses also its consequence, its community is dispersed never to 

 return again, and it falls to pieces like a deserted ruin. The skill and 

 instincts which the wasps develope during their lives refer therefore 

 almost exclusively to the preparation of their indeed very artificial 

 nest ; combined undertakings like those we observed among the ants, 

 we do not detect in them, yet they nevertheless appear to possess a 

 power of communication, for many of the neuters assemble if an enemy 

 appear before their entrances, and endeavour to beat him to retreat 

 by their desperate attacks. These troops are said to be assembled for 

 battle by the guards placed to watch the entrance. 



297- 



Among the social bees, the society of humble bees is the least perfect. 

 It also consists of males, females, and neuters ; and it owes, like that 

 of the wasps, its first foundation to a female. For this purpose the 

 impregnated female, which has lain torpid throughout the winter, 

 seeks in the spring a place suitable to lay the foundation of her nest. 

 She in general seeks shady places concealed among bushes and tufts 

 of grass, where, with much labour, she digs a cup-shaped but yet very 

 slight cavity, over which she spreads an arch, formed of light dry 

 moss. The internal surface of this arch she clothes with a thin layer 

 of wax, and attaches to it the first comb, consisting of large, oval, 

 waxen cells, very loosely connected together. The entrance to the nest 

 is beneath where the arch joins the margin of the hole, but in general 

 a long vaulted passage leads from the exterior to it, that the entrance of 

 enemies may be rendered more difficult. When the first cells are 

 completed the female lays eggs in them, and then fills them with pollen 

 and some honey, for the nourishment of the young. If this does not 

 suffice she also feeds them. These larva merely produce workers, 

 which immediately after their birth assist to feed the younger mem- 

 bers, for which purpose they especially collect pollen and honey. The 



