174 



ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



likewise desert the home and die, and the majority 

 of the females, a few only seeking refuge in cracks 

 and holes, where they survive the winter, and live to 

 be queens and founders of future colonies. Out of a 

 vespiary holding three hundred females in the autumn, 

 barely ten or twelve will see the spring. Before 

 deserting the cells should any grubs remain un 



FIG. 31. Nest of a Brazilian Wasp (Apotca pallida). 



developed, the workers, apparently prescient of their 

 coming doom and aware that there will be none to 

 discharge the duties they must themselves lay down, 

 carry forth the helpless nurslings and forsake them, 

 arrant cruelty on the face of it, in reality an act of 

 mercy, substituting a quick death by exposure, or by 

 falling a prey to some creature's appetite, for the slow 



