AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 375 



around the door of their now desolate habitation. " What 

 monsters of cruelty ! " I hear you exclaim, " what de- 

 testable barbarians ! " But be not too hasty. When you 

 have coolly considered the circumstances of the case, you 

 will view this seemingly cruel sacrifice in a different light. 

 The old wasps have no stock of provisions: the benumb- 

 ing hand of Winter is about to incapacitate them from 

 exertion; while the season itself affords no supply. What 

 resource then is left? Their young must linger on a 

 short period, suffering all the agonies of hunger, and at 

 length expire. They have it in their power at least to 

 shorten the term of this misery to cut off its bitterest 

 moments. A sudden death by their own hands is com- 

 paratively a merciful stroke. This is the only alterna- 

 tive ; and thus, in fact, this apparent ferocity is the last 

 effort of tender affection, active even to the end of life. 

 I do not mean to say that this train of reasoning actually 

 passes through the mind of the wasps. It is more cor- 

 rect to regard it as having actuated the benevolent Au- 

 thor of the instinct so singularly, and without doubt so 

 wisely, excited. Were a nest of wasps to survive the 

 winter, they would increase so rapidly, that not only 

 would all the bees, flies, and other animals on which they 

 prey, be extirpated, but man himself find them a grievous 

 pest. It is necessary, therefore, that the great mass should 

 annually perish; but that they may suffer as little as 

 possible, the Creator, mindful of the happiness of the 

 smallest of his creatures, has endowed a part of the so- 

 ciety, at the destined time, with the wonderful instinct 

 which, previously to their own death, makes them the 

 executioners of the rest. 



Wasps in the construction of their nests have solely 



