128 HISTORY OF 



feet security, and in a copious supply of animal 

 food, she dies satisfied with having provided for 

 a future progeny. 



When the young one' leaves the egg it is scarce- 

 ly visible, and is seen immured among a number 

 of insects, infinitely larger than itself, ranged in 

 proper order around it, which, however, give it 

 no manner of apprehension. Whether the parent, 

 when she laid in the insect provision, contrived to 

 disable the worms from resistance, or whether 

 they were at first incapable of any, is not known. 

 Certain it is, that the young glutton feasts upon 

 the living spoil without any controul : his game 

 lies at his hand, and he devours one after the 

 other as the calls of appetite incite him. The life 

 of the young animal is therefore spent in the most 

 luxurious manner, till its whole stock of worms is 

 exhausted, and then the time of its transformation 

 begins to approach ; and then spinning a silken 

 web, it continues fixed in its cell till the sun calls 

 it from its dark abode the ensuing summer. 



The wasps of Europe are very mischievous, yet 

 they are innocence itself when compared to those 

 of the tropical climates, where all the insect tribes 

 are not only numerous, but large, voracious, and 

 formidable. Those of the West Indies are thicker, 

 and twice as long as the common bee ; they are 

 of a grey colour, striped with yellow, and armed 

 with a very dangerous sting. They make their 

 cells in the manner of a honeycomb, in which the 

 young ones are hatched and bred. They gene- 

 rally hang their nests by threads, composed of the 

 same substance with the cells, to the branches of 



