118 HISTORY OF 



other very strongly, yet, in examining their man- 

 ner and their duration, they differ very widely : 

 the bee labours to lay up honey, and lives to en- 

 joy the fruits of its industry ; the wasp appears 

 equally assiduous, but only works for posterity, 

 as the habitation is scarcely completed when the 

 inhabitant dies. 



The Wasp is well known to be a winged insect 

 with a sting, to be longer in proportion to its 

 bulk than the bee, to be marked with bright yel- 

 low circles round its body, and to be the most 

 swift and active insect of all the fly kind. On 

 each side of the mouth this animal is furnished 

 with a long tooth, notched like a saw ; and with 

 these it is enabled to cut any substance, not 

 omitting meat itself, and to carry it to its nest. 

 Wasps live like bees in community, and some- 

 times ten or twelve thousand are found inhabit- 

 ing a single nest. 



Of all other insects the wasp is the most fierce, 

 voracious, and most dangerous when enraged. 

 They are seen wherever flesh is cutting up, gorg- 

 ing themselves with the spoil, and then flying to 

 their nests with their reeking prey. They make 

 war also on every other fly, and the spider him- 

 self dreads their approaches. 



Every community among bees is 'composed of 

 females or queens, drones or males, and neutral 

 or working bees. Wasps have similar occupa- 

 tions ; the two first are for propagating the spe- 

 cies, the last for nursing, defending, and support- 

 ing the rising progeny. Among bees, however, 

 there is seldom above a queen or two in a hive j 



