HYMENOPTERA. ACULEATA. 215 



continue from year to year, those of the Wasps are 

 strictly annual. 



The foundation of a nest is laid in the spring by a 

 solitary female, which having crept into some sheltered 

 place at the approach of the winter, has survived its 

 rigours, and now issues forth prepared to found a new 

 city. Before the end of autumn this will have contained 

 a population of many thousands. If a Ground-wasp 

 (and we will take Vespa Vulgaris as the example), she 

 commences her operations in some convenient cavity in 

 the earth, it may be an old molehill, or a cavity under 

 the roots of a tree. Here, of paper moulded of the 

 gnawed fibres of wood, she constructs a small comb of a 

 very few shallow cells, and, roofing it over, deposits an 

 egg in each cell. She then proceeds to form more cells 

 and lay more eggs ; and, those first laid being speedily 

 hatched, her labours in behalf of the young become un- 

 remitting. Not only does she feed them with the greatest 

 care, but as they increase in size each little cell is again 

 and again increased in depth. This forming of imperfect 

 cells in the beginning points to a most curious economy 

 of time. From the first eggs are hatched the larvee of 

 workers only, and it is evident that the increase and 

 prosperity of the nest greatly depend on a speedy supply 

 of labourers at this time. This the queen provides for 

 by spending no more time in building than is absolutely 

 necessary before she lays the first eggs, which she does 

 as soon as the cells will contain them, trusting to her 

 own unceasing activity to make up all deficiencies as 

 occasion requires. These larva?, then, she feeds and 

 tends until the time of their first change. On emerging 

 from the pupa state the young workers, within a few 

 hours, set earnestly about assisting the foundress in her 



