268 



WASPS. 



degree. Wasps are very sensitive to cold and exposure, and 

 when weather varies, as is so often the case in early spring, 

 from short bright sunshine to frost, or sleet, or snow, many 

 of the queen Wasps which are caught by the unfavourable 

 weather perish, and their embryo nests, with their few eggs 

 or lately hatched grubs, perish also. 



This embryo nest is made of a kind of grey paper formed 

 of morsels of wood, or of bark, or material of a similar kind, 

 worked by the Wasp into a kind of paste or " papier mache," 

 and spread into the required form by her jaws, and it is 

 obvious that where this delicate structure of perishable 

 material is exposed to bad weather that it will most likely 

 perish. 



When the tiny structure has advanced so far as to have 

 any definite form, it may be described as much resembling a 

 miniature open umbrella formed of thin grey paper, about 

 half an inch to an inch in diameter, and hung by a little 

 stout peg, also made of paper-like material, to whatever 

 support the queen Wasp may have chosen. Continuing the 

 comparison, — beneath this convex umbrella-shaped cap hung 

 up by the peg above is, not a handle, but a short somewhat 

 club-shaped mass, at the lower extremity of which are a few 

 cells containing eggs or Wasp maggots. 



At first the queen has to carry on all the work of the com- 

 mencing colony : to lay the eggs, feed the grubs, gather 



Wasps' nests in early stages, after photos by Dr. Edw. L. Ormerod. 



material for house-building, and use it herself for enlarging 

 the roof of the family shelter, or for deepening the cells (which 

 at first were little more than cups) so as to suit the needs of 

 the growing grubs. Thus the first hood is enlarged, additional 

 layers of paper are added, until the little nest begins to take 

 its characteristic spherical form, and the few cells with which 

 work began are increased in depth and numbers until they 

 become a regular layer of paper Wasp-comb. The accom- 

 panying figures show this condition before the nest has been 



