270 THE HISTOftY OF ANIMALS. [B. IX 



from one origin, as if from a root. They procure their food 

 from some flowers and fruits, but generally, they are car- 

 nivorous. Some persons have observed them in the act of 

 sexual intercourse, but whether one or both had stings or 

 not, was not seen. Some wild wasps also have been seen in 

 the act of intercourse, one of them had a sting, whether the 

 other had was not observed. Their offspring does not seem 

 to be produced from this intercourse, but is always larger 

 than the offspring of the wasp should be. 



7. If a person takes hold of the legs of a wasp, and per- 

 mits it to buzz with its wings, those that have no stings will 

 fly towards him, which those with stings will, not do, and 

 some persons consider this to be a sign that the one are males, 

 the other females. Some are taken in caverns during the 

 winter with stings, and others without them. Some of them 

 make small nests and few in number ; others make many 

 large nests. Many of those called mother wasps are taken 

 at the turn of the season in the neighbourhood of elms, for 

 they collect the sticky and glutinous matter. There are a 

 great many mother wasps, when wasps have been abundant 

 during the previous year, and the weather rainy. They are 

 captured in the neighbourhood of precipitous places and 

 straight fissures in the earth, and all appear to have stings. 

 This, then, is the nature of wasps. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



1. THE wild bees do not live by gathering honey from flowers 

 like the bees, but are entirely carnivorous, for which reason 

 they frequent the neighbourhood of dung ; for they pursue 

 large flies, and when they have taken them they tear off the 

 head and fly away, carrying the rest of the body with them. 

 They will also eat sweet fruit. This, then, is the nature of 

 their food. They have rulers, like the bees and wasps ; and 

 in proportion to the size of the wild bee these rulers are 

 larger than those of the bees and wasps. Their rulers also 

 keep in the nest, like those of the wasps. 



2. The wild bees make their nest under the soil, which they 

 remove like the ants. They never swarm like bees, neither 

 do wasps ; but the young ones always remain with them, and 

 as the nest increases they carry out the heap of earth. The 

 nests become large ; and from a flourishing nest three or 



