PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 107 



provoked with impunity. Compared with the bees, they 

 may be considered as a horde of thieves and brigands ; 

 and the latter as peaceful, honest, and industrious sub- 

 jects, whose persons are attacked and property plun- 

 dered by them. Yet, with all this love of pillage and 

 other bad propensities, they are not altogether disagree- 

 able or unamiable ; they are brisk and lively ; they do 

 not usually attack unprovoked ; and their object in 

 plundering us is not purely selfish, but is principally to 

 provide for the support of the young brood of their 

 colonies. 



The societies of wasps, like those of ants and other 

 social Hymenoptera, consist of females, males, and work- 

 ers. The females may be considered as of two sorts : 

 first, the females by way of eminence, much larger than 

 any other individuals of the community, equalling six of 

 the workers (from which in other respects they do not 

 materially differ) in weight, and laying both male and 

 female eggs. Then the small females, not bigger than the 

 workers, and laying only male eggs. This last descrip- 

 tion of females, which are found also both amongst the 

 humble-bees and hive-bees, were first observed amongst 

 the wasps by M. Perrot, a friend of Huber's a . The 

 large females are produced later than the workers, and 

 make their appearance in the following spring ; and who- 

 ever destroys one of them at that time, destroys an in- 

 tire colony, of which she would be the founder. They 

 are more worthy of praise than the queen-bee ; since 

 upon the latter, from her very first appearance in the 

 perfect state no labour devolves, all her wants being 

 prevented by a host of workers, some of which are con- 

 a Huber, Nouv. Qbserv, ii. 443. 



