384 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



host of workers, some of which are constantly attending upon her, feeding 

 her, and permitting her to suffer no fatigue ; while others take every step 

 that is necessary for the safety and subsistence of the colony. Not so our 

 female wasp ; — she is at first an insulated being that has had the fortune 

 to survive the rigors of winter. When in the spring she lays the founda- 

 tion of her future empire, she has not a single worker at her disposal : 

 with her own hands and teeth she often hollows out a cave wherein she 

 may lay the first foundations of her paper metropolis ; she must herself 

 build the first houses, and produce from her own womb their first inhab- 

 itants, which in their infant state she must feed and educate, before they 

 can assist her in her great design. At length she receives the reward of 

 her perseverance and labor ; and from being a solitary unconnected indi- 

 vidual, in the autumn is enabled to rival the queen of the hive in the 

 number of her children and subjects, and in the edifices which they 

 inhabit — the number of cells in a vespiary sometimes amounting to more 

 than 16,000, almost all of which contain either an egg, a grub, or a pupa, 

 and each cell serving for three generations in a year ; which, after making 

 every allowance for failures and other casualties, will give a population of 

 at least 30,000. Even at this time, when she has so numerous an army 

 of coadjutors, the industry of this creature does not cease, but she con- 

 tinues to set an example of diligence to the rest of the community. If 

 by any accident, before the other females are hatched, the queen-mother 

 perishes, the neuters cease their labors, lose their instincts, and die. 



The number of females in a populous vespiary is considerable, amount- 

 ing to several hundred ; they emerge from the pupa about the latter end of 

 August, at the same time with the males, and fly in September and Octo- 

 ber, when they pair. Of this large number of females, very few survive 

 the winter. Those that are so fortunate remain torpid till the vernal sun 

 recalls them to life and action. They then fly forth, collect provision for 

 their young brood, and are engaged in the other labors necessary for laying 

 the foundation of their empire : but in the summer months they are never 

 seen out of the nest. 



The male wasps are much smaller than the female, but they weigh as 

 much as two workers. Their antennae are longer than those of either, 

 not, like theirs, thicker at the end, but perfectly filiform ; and their abdo- 

 men is distinguished by an additional segment. Their numbers about 

 equal those of the females, and they are produced at the same time. 

 They are not so wholly given to pleasure and idleness as the drones of 

 the hive. They do not, indeed, assist in building the nest, and in the care 

 of the young brood ; but they are the scavengers of the community ; for 

 they sweep the passages and streets, and carry off all the filth. They 

 also remove the bodies of the dead, which are sometimes heavy burdens 

 for them ; in which case two unite their strength to accomplish the work ; 

 or, if a partner be not at hand, the wasp thus employed cuts off the head 

 of the defunct, and so effects its purpose. As they make themselves so 

 useful, they are not, like the male bees, devoted by the workers to an 

 universal massacre when the impregnation of the females, the great end of 

 their creation, is answered ; but they share the general lot of the commu- 

 nity, and are suffered to survive till the cold cuts off them and the workers 

 together. 



