On the QLconomy of BteS. Hi 



former to defend their nest or themselves : but if one cscapfe 

 from within, it comes with a very diflcrcnt temper, and 

 appears commissioned to avenge public wrongs, and pre- 

 pared to sacrifice its life in the execution of its orders. I 

 discovered the circumstance, thm wasps thus excluded from 

 their nest, would neither defend it, nor themselves, at a very 

 early period of my life; and I profiled so often by the dis- 

 covery, as a schoolboy, that I am quite certain of the fact 

 1 state; and I do not entertain any doubt, thousih I t;peak. 

 from experiments less accurately made, that the actions of 

 bees, under similar circumstances, would be the same*. 



Mr. Hunter conceived bees wax to be an anUnal substance, 

 which exuded between the scales of the belly of the insect; 

 but lam stro:igly disposed to believe that it is collected from 

 plants, and merely deposited between the scales of the belly 

 of the bee, for the joint purposes of being carried with con- 

 venience, and giving the temperature necessary for bcinfj 

 moulded into combs: and I am led to this conclusion, not 

 only by the circumstance of wax being found in the vege- 

 table world, but also by having often observed bees ea?- 

 ployed in detaching something from the bases of the ieaw? 

 of plants with their forceps, which they did not deposit on 



* A curious circumstance relative to wasps attracted the notice of some of 

 my friends last year, and has not, I believe, been satisfactorily aa:ounted for. 

 A greater number of female wasps were observed in different parts o'f tlie 

 kingdom, in the spring and early part of the summex of tliat year, than ?.t al- 

 most any former period; yet scarcely any nests, or labouring wasps, were 

 seen in the following autumn ; the caure of which T believe I can f xplain. At- 

 tending to some peach-trees in my garden, late in tlie autumn of the year 1?C13, 

 onwhichlhadbeenmakingexjxrimcnts, 1 noticed, daringmanv successive days, 

 a vast number of female wasps, which appeared to h:ive l):;cn attracted ther? 

 by the shelter and warmth of a south wall ; but I did not observe any males. 

 At length, during a warm gleam in the middle of one of the days, a singlft 

 male appeared, and selected a female clc.se to me; and this was the omy n-.al;- 

 I saw in that season. The mule wasp, wliich is readily distinguishable ivoK\ 

 the female and labourer, by his long antciinx and shining wings, iind bvii 

 blacker and more blender body, is rarely seen out of the nest, except in vcr\ 

 warm days, like the drone bee ; and the nests of wasps, tliough very abun- 

 dant in the year 1805, were not formed till remarkably late in the scasor. ; 

 and ihence I «oiicludc that the males had not acquired maturity till the wci- 

 ther had ceased m be warm, and that the females, in consequence, retired tw 

 their long^ winttr »leep wiihoiit having had any iiitfrcoursc v.ith tiiem. 



their 



