216 INSECTS. 



labours. They form fresh combs, they increase the size 

 of the cavity in which the nest is placed, and, cutting 

 up the original saucer-like covering of the nest, they 

 use its material towards the construction of an elaborate 

 roof of layer after layer of grey paper, the size of which 

 increases with that of the nest itself. All this while, and 

 indeed throughout her life, the female assists in these 

 labours, not, as with the Ants, relinquishing such cares so 

 soon as she is surrounded by a hundred little hands and 

 feet willing and eager to undertake the whole labour of 

 the hive, nor, as with the Bees, consenting to be installed 

 in all the pomp and dignity of monarchy. The Wasp, on 

 the contrary, having reared her brood of workers, pro- 

 ceeds to fill the new and refill the old cells with eggs 

 which again are to produce workers only, and joins the 

 first brood in the task of tending and feeding the second. 

 This, however, is not all : the workers themselves begin 

 to increase the population of the hive (although no males 

 have as yet been hatched, these never appearing till 

 towards the end of the season) and lay eggs which pro- 

 duce workers only, or, later, workers and males. The 

 large, or perfect, females are always the progeny of the 

 first mother or foundress of the nest, as, in the time which 

 is approaching, these also will alone survive the winter, 

 to be themselves the founders of new colonies. 



When the colony has arrived at what may be called its 

 perfect state, consisting of males, females, and neuters, 

 the work proceeds more actively than ever. Living 

 in perfect harmony, the many females now assist in 

 the populating of the nest, sharing meanwhile the 

 labours of the neuters ; and the males, though they 

 neither feed the young nor help in building, yet find 

 themselves occupation in the way of "odd jobs about the 



