246 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 
themselves ; these at first consisting entirely of neuters, which assist 
their parent in the duties of the nest. The nests are either built 
underground in holes, in banks, or are attached to branches of trees, 
or the woodwork of outhouses. They are composed of a paper-like 
substance formed of finely gnawed wood, or the bark of trees, reduced 
to a kind of paste by the action of the jaws, and contain a variable 
number of cells (sometimes amounting in number to as many as 
16,000*), which are of an hexagonal form, arranged in tiers, with the 
mouth downwards (or opening sideways, as in Polistes, fig. 87. 20.), 
in which the larvee and pupe are contained. In some species (Polistes 
gallica, &c.) the cells are not defended by a common envelope (fig. 87. 
20.); but in others (as Vespa vulgaris) the covering of the nest is very 
thick, and consists of many layers, with a circular orifice for the 
passage of the inhabitants. The males+ and females are only de- 
veloped at the beginning of the autumn, in order that a succession for 
the following year’s nests may be insured. 
These insects are very voracious, preying upon other insects {, 
sugar, meat, fruit, honey, &c.§; which, after being properly prepared 
in the stomach of the winged insects, is disgorged, and serves as 
food for the young, which are fed therewith daily; the females as 
well as neuters assisting in this task. The males, as in all other 
social insects, are drones, performing no kind of labour. 
Ample details of the natural history of the common wasps have 
been given by De Geer (Mém. tom. ii. pl. 26.), Réaumur (Meém. 
tom. vi. mém. 6.), Disderi (in Turin Trans. vol. ii. and iii.), and others, 
as well as by Kirby and Spence, in whose Jntroduction will be found 
complete accounts of their general economy ; the solicitude of the fe- 
males and neuters for the welfare of the young broods; the annual 
* Supposing the number of cells to be 10,000, Réaumur calculates that the 
community would consist of 30,000 individuals before the close of the year, each cell 
serving successively for the cradle of three generations. 
+ Réaumur figures (Mém. tom. vi. pl. 14. fig. 3. 4.) two males from the same 
nest, observing that there are two sizes in this sex amongst the males (p. 206.) ; but 
in the mémoire itself he has not made any observation relative to this fact. 
t+ The Americans, aware of their service in destroying flies, sometimes sus- 
pend a hornet’s nest in their parlours. (Sé. John’s Letters to an American Farmer.) 
I have watched the common wasp hovering over, and darting, hawk-like, upon flies 
upon excrement, careful not to soil its own legs or wings. 
§ Their partiality for honey renders them very dangerous enemies to the hiye, 
which they fearlessly enter to feed on the honey. 
