PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 385 



The workers are the most numerous, and to us the only troublesome 

 part of the community; upon whom devolves the main business of the 

 nest. In the summer and autumnal months, they go forth by myriads 

 into the neighboring country to collect provisions; and on their return to 

 the common den, after reserving a sufficiency for the nutriment of the 

 young brood, they divide the spoil with great impartiality ; — part being 

 given to the females, part to the males, and part to those workers that have 

 been engaged in extending and fortifying the vespiary. This division is 

 voluntarily made, without the slightest symptom of compulsion. Several 

 wasps assemble round each of the returning workers, and receive their 

 respective portions. It is curious and interesting to observe their motions 

 upon this occasion. As soon as a wasp, that jias been filling itself with 

 the juice of fruits, arrives at the nest, it perches upon the top, and disgorg- 

 ing a drop of its saccharine fluid, is attended sometimes by two at once, 

 who share the treasure : this being thus distributed, a second and sometimes 

 a third drop is produced, which falls to the lot of others. 



Wasps do not in general store up honey, but it is found in the cells of 

 some European species of PoKstes, as well as in those of America ; and 

 M. A. de St. Hilaire was nearly poisoned b}'^ eating that collected by P. 

 lecheguana which inhabits Paraguay and Monte Video. ^ Another wasp 

 before referred to under " habitations of insects," as forming a nest some- 

 what similar to that of Chatcrgus nidulcms, also stores up honey, as we 

 learn from the interesting paper of Mr. Adam White, who has named it 

 Myrapetra scutellaris.^ 



Another principal employment of the workers is the enlarging and 

 ■ repairing of the nest. It is extremely amusing to see them engaged upon 

 this foliaceous covering. They work with great celerity ; and though a 

 large number are occupied at the same time, there is not the least confu- 

 sion. Each individual has its portion of work assigned to it, extending 

 from an inch to an inch and a half, and is furnished with a ball of ligneous 

 fibre, scraped or rather plucked by its powerful jaws from posts, rails, and 

 the like. This is carried in its mouth, and is thus ready for immediate 

 use: — but upon this subject I have enlarged in a former letter. The 

 workers also clean the cells and prepare them to receive another egg, after 

 the imago is disclosed and has left. 



There is good reason for thinking, and the opinion has the sanction 

 of Sir Joseph Banks, that wasps have sentinels placed at the entrances 

 of their nests, which if you can once seize and destroy, the remainder 

 will not attack you. This is confirmed by an observation of Mr. Knight's 

 in the Philosophical Transactions'^, that if a nest of wasps be approached 

 without alarming the inhabitants, and all communication be suddenly cut 

 off between those out of the nest and those within it, no provocation will 

 induce the former to defend it and themselves. But if one escapes from 

 within, it comes with a very different temper, and appears commissioned 

 to avenge public wrongs, and prepared to sacrifice its life in the execution 

 of its orders. He discovered tliis when quite a boy. 



It sometimes happens that when a large number of female wasps have 

 been observed in the spring, and an abundance of workers has in conse- 



^ Lacordaire, Introd. h VEntom. ii. 511. * Annals of Nat. Hist. vii. 316. 



3 For 1807, 242—. 



33 



