112 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



days, in which they were very active, benumbed by the 

 cold they were crawling about upon the floors of my 

 house and seemed unable to fly. In this vicinity numbers 

 make their nests in the banks of the river. In the begin- 

 ning of the month of October there was a very considera- 

 ble inundation, after which not a single wasp was to be 

 seen. The continued wet that produces an inundation 

 may also destroy those nests that are out of the reach of 

 the waters ; — and perhaps this cause may have operated 

 in those years above alluded to, in which the appear- 

 ance of the workers in the summer and autumn did not 

 correspond with the large numbers of females observed 

 in the spring. 



In ordinary seasons, in the month lately mentioned, 

 October, wasps seem to become less savage and sangui- 

 nary ; for even flies, of which earlier in the summer they 

 are the pitiless destroyers, may be seen to enter their 

 nests with impunity. It is then, probably, that they begin 

 to be first affected by the approach of the cold season, 

 when nature teaches them it is useless longer to attend to 

 their young. They themselves all perish, except a few 

 of the females, upon the first attack of frost. 



Reaumur, from whom (see the sixth Memoir of his 

 last volume) most of these observations are taken, put 

 the nests of wasps under glass hives, and succeeded so 

 effectually in reconciling these little restless creatures 

 to them, that they carried on their various works under 

 his eye : and if you feel disposed to follow his example, 

 I have no doubt you will throw light upon many parts of 

 their history, concerning which we are now in darkness. 



Having given you some idea, imperfect indeed from 



