374- AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



your ravaged fruit has supplied an exquisite banquet to 

 the most tender grubs of the nest, into whose extended 

 mouths the successful marauders, running with astonish- 

 ing agility from one cell to another, disgorge successively 

 a small portion of their booty in the same way that a 

 bird supplies her young 3 . Another party is charged 

 with providing more substantial aliment for the grubs of 

 maturer growth. These wage war upon bees, flies, and 

 even the meat of a butcher's stall, and joyfully return to 

 the nest laden with the well-filled bodies of the former, 

 or pieces of the latter as large as they can carry. This 

 solid food they distribute in like manner to the larger 

 grubs, which may be seen eagerly protruding their 

 heads out of the cells to receive the welcome meal. As 

 wasps lay up no store of food, these exertions are the 

 task of every day during the summer, fresh broods of 

 grubs constantly succeeding to those which have become 

 pupae or perfect insects ; and in autumn, when the colony 

 is augmented to 20 or 30,000, and the grubs in pro- 

 portion, the scene of bustle which it presents may be 

 readily conceived. 



Though such is the love of wasps for their young, that 

 if their nest be broken almost entirely in pieces they will 

 not abandon it b , yet when the cold weather approaches, 

 a melancholy change ensues, followed by a cruel cata- 

 strophe, which at first you will be apt to regard as ill 

 comporting with this affectionate character. As soon as 

 the first sharp frost of October has been felt, the exterior 

 of a wasp's nest becomes a perfect scene of horror. The 

 old wasps drag out of the cells all the grubs and unre- 

 lentingly destroy them, strewing their dead carcases 



a See Willughby in Rai. Hist. Ins. 251. and Reaum. 

 h Reaum. vi. 174. 



