THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 345 



the future population. The long tunnel and the large cave have 

 both to be hollowed out with infinite labour by the gradual 

 removal of the soil in the form of minute pellets carried in the 

 wasp's jaws or mandibles, and which the cautious little work- 

 people are careful to carry away to some distance from the mouth of 

 the tunnel, so as to prevent the situation of the secret passage being 

 detected, through an accumulation of earth near its entrance. Then 

 paper-making begins, and more wonderful industry and perseverance 

 in kneading and plastering, and when the walls of the large cave are 

 lined and tapestried with many layers of paper, there comes into 

 operation lastly the same constructing skill as that of the bee, in 

 forming the tiny six-sided cells, crowded together so as to take up 

 as little space and material as possible ; only that as each storey of 

 cells is placed across the nest horizontally and is separate from each 

 other storey, and not joined end to end, as in the combs of bees, the 

 cells are fiat at the bottom, and there is no occasion for the three 

 sided pyramid at the end of each, which is seen in the cell of the bee. 

 The storeys in the wasps' nest are, in fact, placed one above another, 

 as in our own dwelling, only that a space is left between each storey, 

 in order that the worker wasps may get to the young broods 

 in the cells — for the combs of wasps are never used for the 

 storing up honey in, as those of bees. A most curious con- 

 trivance is adopted by the wasps, in order to secure the sepa- 

 ration of the different storeys and the firmness of the whole 

 nest. A little upright pillar of solid wasp-paper mortar is placed 

 between each layer of cells, just as a human architect places pillars 

 to support ceilings or roofs over large apartments or buildings. 

 AVhen the cells are filled with grubs, the attention of 

 the wasp nurses to the young is equal to that of bees, 

 but it does not appear that any substance like the bee- 

 bread of kneaded pollen is formed for their food, but 

 that the wasp brings home to the brood such food as she 

 fyT*~^^' feeds on herself — probably after it has undergone some 

 Comb with cnaD g e m her stomach, and it may be that her avidity 

 supporting for sweet juices may arise from her desire to carry it 

 pillar, from home for the young of her community. And when the 

 Neat of Wasp, cold of late autumn has crept on, and the latest of 

 juicy pears has been gathered, and windows never left 

 open, the life and labours of the wasp end together, the colony is 

 reduced clown to a few males and females, and a few workers, who 

 contrive to survive the frosts of winter, to begin again in the spring 

 the construction of a new paper city, and are too busy over their 

 work to notice in the blossoms of our fruit trees the preparation for 

 their autumn feasts. Shall we not after all bid thetn welcome to a 

 Bhare of the dainties for which Nature has given them a relish as well 

 as ourselves ? 



In the form of the wasp with its Blender waist, is seen very 

 plainly the separation between the thorax or chest, and the abdomen 

 or stomach, which forms one of the distinguishing marks of an insect, 

 while in their lives, each individual passes through the three changes, 

 which is peculiar to every other insect — first, the grub or larva ; 



November. 



