The Common Wasp 



aperture lost among the thin flakes of the sur- 

 rounding surface. Facing it is the under- 

 ground vestibule leading to the outer world. 



The cells of the lower combs are larger 

 than those of the upper; they are set aside 

 for the rearing of the females and the males, 

 while those in the stories up above serve for 

 the neuters, who are a little smaller. At 

 first the community requires, before all else, 

 an abundance of workers, of celibates ex- 

 clusively addicted to work, who enlarge the 

 dwelling and prepare it to become a flourish- 

 ing city. Preoccupations for the future be- 

 long to a later stage. More capacious cells 

 are constructed, some intended for the males, 

 others for the females. According to figures 

 which I will give later, the sexed population 

 represents about one-third of the whole. 



Let us also observe that, in a Wasps'-nest 

 which has reached an advanced age, the cells 

 in the upper stories have their walls gnawed 

 right down to the base. They are ruins of 

 which naught remains but the foundations. 

 Useless from the moment when the com- 

 munity, now rich in workers, has only to be 

 completed by the appearance of the two 

 sexes, the tiny chambers have been pulled 

 down; and their paper, once more reduced 

 to pulp, has been used for the construction 

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