RHYTHM OF WASPS 157 



As autumn aj^proaches, the wasps' nest, like the nest of 

 the bumble-bees, disintegrates and disai)pears, while the 

 hive of the honey-bee persists throughout the winter, berclL 

 only of its drones, whieli are usually done to death by the 

 workers. Two categories, the queen and the workers, li\L' 

 through the winter in the honey-bee eolonies, with lowered 

 activities, but yet alive and ready to resume work when 

 spring arrives. The hive also remains, the comb is not 

 destroyed, and after the worker bees have carried through a 

 little spring-cleaning — so dear to the female heart — it will 

 be ready for use again when next needed. 



But with the wasps' nest things are far otherwise. As the 

 autumn approaches and the cold weather comes on the young 



9 



Worker-bee. Queen-bee. Drone. 



Fig. 54. The Honey-bee, Apis mellifica. 



queens, which have previously been fertilized by the drones, 

 retire from the world and hide away in moss or under a 

 thatched roof or in some corner of a shed. Here they seize 

 with their jaws some fragment of straw or bit of rag and, 

 hanging on almost entirely by their jaws, wrap their wings 

 round them like a dressing-gown and enter on their winter 

 sleep. Meanwhile the wasps' nest has been rapidly deteriora- 

 ting. The activities of the workers fall off, the drones are 

 slain or cease to return to the nest. The workers sustain life 

 for a few more days by devouring the remaining larvae and 

 pupae, but soon they also perish. The nest begins to crumble, 

 and so the ruins of what was the home of one of the most 

 highly organized of insect communities serve but to shelter 

 field mice, earwigs, mites, beetles and woodliee. Seen under 



a diminishing glass, 



the Lion and the Lizard keep 

 The Courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep. 



