LETTER XVIII. 



SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



PERFECT SOCIETIES CONTINUED. {Wasps and Ilum- 



hle-Bees.) 



I SHALL now call your attention to such parts of the 

 history of two other descriptions of social insects, icasps, 

 namely, and humble-bees^ as have not been related to 

 you in my letters on the aft'ection of insects for their 

 young", and on their habitations. What I have to com- 

 municate, though not devoid of interest, is not to be 

 compared m ith the preceding; account of the ants, nor 

 with that which will tbllow of the hive-bee. This, how- 

 ever, may arise more from the deficiency of observa- 

 tions than the barrenness of the subject. 



The first of these animals, zoasps, — with whose pro- 

 ceedings I shall begin, — we are apt to regard in a very 

 unfavourable light. They are the most impertinent 

 of intruders. If a door or window be open at the sea- 

 son of the year in which they appear, they are sure to 

 enter. When they visit us, they stand upon no cere- 

 mony, but make free with every thing that they can come 

 at. Sugar, meat, truit, wine, are equally to their taste; 

 and if we attempt to drive them away, and are not very 

 cautious, they will often make us sensible that they are 

 not to be provoked with impunity. Compared with the 

 bees, they may be considered as a horde of thieves and 

 brigands j and the latter as peaceful, honest, and in- 



