100 THE COMMON WASP. TcH, VI 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE COMMON WASP. 



The Nest — Construction and Materials — Form of the Combs — Affection 

 for %ts Young — Manner of feeding them — Solitary Wasps — Hornets. 



After considering the peaceful community of bees, 

 few perhaps will be tempted to observ^e the manners 

 and habits of wasps. The one may be looked upon 

 as a highly-civilized and humane tribe, resorting to 

 arms in self-defence alone, and seldom gaining their 

 bread by violent means — the other as a ferocious 

 tribe, subsisting solely by rapine and murder, fear- 

 lessly attacking most other insects, and giving no 

 quarter to the bee or the fly. The habits of the 

 common wasp will serve as an example of the rest 

 of this species which live in society. 



The vespiary, or wasp's nest, contains three 

 classes of wasps; females, neuters armed with 

 stings, and males destitute of this weapon. They 

 are all workers. Different kinds of wasps choose 

 different places to construct their nests ; some ex- 

 posing them to all the inclemencies of the weather, 

 others sheltering them in a hollow of a tree, or a 

 hole carefully dug in the ground. The latter is the 

 case with the common wasp. A kind of covered 

 and tortuous gallery leads to the subterranean city; 

 in this there are large spaces, which may be likened 

 to our public places, streets, and houses, all symme- 

 trically arranged, and though not evincing the ex- 

 quisite economy of the bee, yet deserving much 

 commendation: the city itself is suixoinided by a 

 wall, composed of a substance which in texture very 

 closely resembles the paper in ordinary use ; this 



