11^ F£&F£Cr SOCIETIES OF IX5ECH, 



kood in v^ich I reside abundance of wasps at the usual 

 4iiue ; bnu except on sv^oe few warm days, in which 

 they were Tcanr active, benumbed by the cold they were 

 cra%< liruj about upon the floors of my house, and seemed 

 unable to fly. In this ricinit) numbers make their 

 sests in the banks of the rirer. In the beirianing of 

 Octoher there was a Tery considerable inundation, after 

 which not a simple wasp was to be seen. The conti- 

 soed wet that produces an inundation may also destroy 

 those nests that are out of the reach of the waters : — 

 and perhaps this causie may have operated in those 

 yeais above alioded to,m which the appearance of the 

 vn&ers in die ammmtesr and aotnmn did not correspond 

 with tiie large nmibers of females observed in the 



In ordinary seasons, in the monih lately mentioned. 

 October, wasps seem to become less sava^-e and san- 

 sninarr : for even flies, of which earlier in the sum- 

 mer ihey are the pitiless destroyers, may be seen to 

 eoter their nests with imptmitA". It is then, probably, 

 that they beg-in 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 at- 

 tack of frost- 

 Reaumur, from wIkhu (see the sixth Memoir of his 

 last v<4mne) roost of these observations are taken, put 

 ^ie joests of wasps tinder ^lass hives, and succeeded so 

 c^BcteaUT in reconciling these little restless creatures 

 to tbem. that thev carried on their various works under 

 -t it eye : and if you feel disposed to foEow his example, 

 I have no doubt yon will throw li^ht upon many parts 



