The Common Wasp 



Obviously the figures in this table must be 

 regarded as approximate. The number of 

 cells varies greatly in different nests and 

 cannot be calculated very accurately. The 

 counting is correct, in the case of each comb, 

 to a hundred or so. Despite the elasticity 

 of these figures, my result agrees very well 

 with that obtained by Reaumur, who, in a 

 nest of fifteen combs, counted sixteen thou- 

 sand cells. The master adds: 



" With only ten thousand cells, as there is 

 perhaps not a cell which does not, on an av- 

 erage, serve to rear three larvae, a Wasps'- 

 nest produces over thirty thousand Wasps a 

 year." 



Thirty thousand, say the statistics. What 

 becomes of this multitude when the bad 

 weather arrives? I shall find out. We are 

 now in December; there are occasional 

 frosts, though they are not yet very serious. 

 I know of a nest. I owe it to the man who 

 provides me with Moles, a worthy fellow 

 who, for a few halfpence, makes good the 

 poverty of my vegetable-beds with his own 

 produce. Despite the inconvenience which 

 the proximity caused him, he has preserved 

 the nest for me in his garden, among the 

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