272 THE DIPLOPTERA. 



30,000 Wasps at the end of the summer. This 

 same circumstance, however, renders it impossible for 

 the community of Wasps to survive the winter, and 

 we accordingly find that with the first cold days of 

 autumn these well-known inhabitants of our woods 

 and fields speedily disappear, leaving only a few fe- 

 males, which, remaining in a torpid state, concealed 

 in the cavities of their nests, are destined, as already 

 stated, to continue their race in the following summer. 

 But the last act of the Wasps, when they feel that 

 the hand of death will soon be upon them, is one of 

 the most singular exhibitions of instinctive foresight 

 that we meet with in the animal world. Feeling ap- 

 parently, though by what means we cannot of course 

 discover, that the larvae upon whom they have hitherto 

 lavished their affectionate care will soon perish of 

 hunger when their nurses are no longer in existence 

 to furnish them with their daily supply of food, they 

 attack them with a fury which contrasts singularly 

 with their previous conduct, tear the helpless grubs 

 from the cells, sting them to death, and scatter their 

 dead bodies about the entrance to the nest. Unna- 

 tural as such conduct may appear, there is no doubt 

 that it is the most merciful course that the insects 

 could pursue, and in the words of Kirby and S pence, 

 "this apparent ferocity is the last effort of tender 

 affection, active even to the end of life.^^ 



These are the habits of the common Wasp of this 

 country, and the other social species agree pretty 

 closely with it in their oeconomy, although some of 

 them place their nests in very diff'erent situations. 

 Thus the Hornet ( Vespa Crabro), the largest species, 

 builds its nest in the holes of trees, under the eaves of 

 buildings, and in outhouses ; and similar localities are 



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