lOS PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



stantly 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 rigours of 

 winter. When in the spring she lays the foundation of 

 her future empire, she has not a single worker at her dis- 

 posal : 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 inhabitants ; 

 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 labour; 

 and from being a solitary unconnected individual, 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 casual- 

 ties, 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 odier fe- 

 males are hatched, the queen mother perishes, the neu- 

 ters cease their labours, lose their instincts, and die. 



The number of females in a populous vespiary is con- 

 siderable, amounting to several hundred ; they emerge 

 from the pupa about the latter end of August, at the same 



