216 THE WASr. 



table substances agglutinated by a tenacious 

 fluid discharged from the mouths of the in- 

 sects during their operations. The female 

 wasps deposit their eggs in the cells, one in 

 each cell appropriated for that purpose : 

 from these are hatched the larvae or maggots, 

 which bear a near resemblance to those of 

 bees : they are fed by the labouring wasps 

 with a coarse kind of honey, and when 

 arrived at their full size, close up their 

 respective cells with a fine tissue of silken 

 filaments, and after a certain period emerge 

 in their complete or perfect form. The male 

 insect, like the bee, is destitute of a sting ; 

 the society, or swarm, of the common wasp, 

 consists of a vast number of neutral or 

 labouring insects, a much smaller number of 

 males, and still fewer females. They do not, 

 like bees, prepare and lay up a store of honey 

 for winter use ; but the few which survive 

 the season of their birth, remain torpid 

 during the colder months. Wasps in general 

 are both carnivorous, and frugivorous. 



A highly elegant Wasps nest is sometimes 

 seen during the summer season attached or 

 hanging by its base to some straw, or other 



