THE SOCIAL WASPS. 271 



earlier part of the season_, busily seeking for materials 

 with which to add to the size of their dwelling. The 

 substance employed for this latter purpose is one 

 which could hardly be expected to furnish the peculiar 

 papery matter of which the nests are composed; it 

 consists of small portions of wood, stripped from the 

 surface of palings, posts, &c., and then masticated by 

 the jaws of the Wasps until it forms a veritable 

 papier mdche, which the little creatures then apply 

 to all the purposes for which they require it. The food 

 which they collect alike for their own consumption 

 and for that of the helpless footless grubs lying in the 

 hexagonal cradles at home, consists of a mixture of 

 both animal and vegetable matters, such as honey and 

 the saccharine juices of plants, sugar, and the juice of 

 ripe fruits, with flies of various kinds, and frequently 

 also small fragments of meat stolen from the shops 

 of country butchers. With a mixture of animal and 

 vegetable juices, disgorged from their own stomachs 

 by the attentive nurses, the larvae are constantly fed ; 

 and it seems that as the grubs advance from baby- 

 hood their diet becomes more and more of an animal 

 nature, until, when nearly mature, the booty is distri- 

 buted to them in the condition in which it is brought 

 into the nest. 



As the Wasps, unlike the Hive Bees, lay up no 

 store of food, the cells are ready for the reception of 

 eggs as soon as the perfect insects have emerged from 

 them, and hence, larvae of all ages may be found 

 in a Wasps' nest at almost all seasons during the 

 summer. It appears that in this way each cell may 

 serve as the cradle of three successive larvae, so that 

 Keaumur, supposing the number of cells to average 

 10,000, calculates that a populous nest may contain 



