378 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[Insects. 



Fi^. 3653 khows the interior of the carder-bees' 

 nest, with the cells. 



Fig. 3654 shows the breedio^-cells, removed from 

 the nest. 



The Carder-bees are smaller than the common 

 Humble-bee ; the lore part of the back is ol' a dull 

 orange and the hinder part ringed uitii different 

 shades of greyish yellow. 



From the Bee we m»y next turn to the Wasp 

 and Its immediate allies, of which Fig. 3655 illus- 

 trates four species, viz., the Hornet (Vespa Crabro), 

 •.vith the ntst in the hollow of a wooden jiost ; the 

 \'espa BritannicH and nest, at <i ; the Vespa Holsatica 

 and nest, at b; the common Wasp (Vespa vul- 

 garis;, at c. 



'fhf common Wasp (Vespa vulgaris) is generally 

 seen iii great abundance m the autumn and latter 

 |>art of the summer ; and its fondness for luscious 

 fruits, for sugar, and even for flesh, is known to all. 

 H is very rapacious, and will attack and devour 

 weaker insects ; it is also bold in defence of its nest, 

 or vespiary. 



In many respects there is a great similarity be- 

 tween the operations of these insects and humble- 

 bees. 



A vespiary during the season of bustle and 

 activity contains the following inhabitants: first, 

 females of two sorts, a large variety, the founders 

 of a future colony, and a smaller variety, producing, 

 it is believed, only male eggs; secondly, worKeis; 

 thirdly, males; and fourthly, eggs and young. But 

 there is no honey, and no store of food. 



Numerous as are the tenants of a vespiary, all 

 perish when the seventy of winter sets in, witfi the 

 exception of a few large females, destined to con- 

 tinue the race. These become torpid, till revived 

 by the warm breath of spring, when they issue forth, 

 each taking her separate way, to be the solitary 

 foundress of a busy colony. Various are tht sites 

 in wlucli the (jueen wasp commences her settlement. 

 Holes in banks, either formed or enlarged by her- 

 self, burrows in deep thatch, recesses under the 

 roofs of buildings, and similar situations are appro- 

 priated. Having fixed upon or excavated a con- 

 venient retreat, she begins to construct her citadel 

 with its arrangement of floors and cells, to be 

 (inished herealter by her numerous assistants. 

 What, it may be asked, are her materials? Not wax, 

 as in the case of the bee, but paper, papiei-mache ! 

 Yes, the wasp is a paper manulacturer, and time im- 

 memorial, ere " Greece and Rome had writ their 

 an:ials,"' did it prepare this invaluable material, fore- 

 stalling: the art of man. Tnis paper is made from the 

 tibresofwood. 'I'he insect, by means of its strong man- 

 dibles, tears away and bites off filaments or minute 

 fragments from half-decayed trees, from weather- 

 worn posts, palings, or other sources of supply. 

 Long had the material indeed, with which the wasp 

 builds its vespiary, puzzled inquirers, and was at 

 length by chance discovered. One day M. Reaumur 

 saw a female wasp alight on the sash of his window, 

 and begin with her mandibles to detach slender 

 fibres from the wood, little more than a line in length, 

 and gather them into a bundle with her feet, adding 

 to it from other parts of the wood-work favourable to 

 her purpose. He observed that she bruised each 

 fibre, as she detached it, in her mouth ; and on ex- 

 amining her bundle, found it composed of similar 

 bruised portions. He imitated it by means of a 

 penknife, and had at once a clue to the material 

 of the vespiary. The filaments, it may be added, 

 are carried home and masticated into a sort of 

 pulp by the addition of a viscid saliva, which blends 

 the whole into a ductile mass capable of being 

 moulded or spread out as may be required ; the work 

 proceeds with great order and rapidity, each labourer 

 naving its allotted station. 



To return to the solitary female : her first care is 

 to form a number of cells, perhaps several hun- 

 dreds, in which she deposits her eggs, attaching 

 them by means of a strong gluten ; in a short time 

 a brood of the larvae of workers make their appear- 

 ance, and are assiduously fed and attended till 

 thi.-y assume the pupa state. In a few daysthey come 

 lorth a crowd ol obedient labourers, ready within the 

 course of twelve hours to assist their parent queen. 

 They soon set about enlarging and perfecting the 

 vespiary; they construct additional tiers of cells, in 

 which the queen deposits the eggs of females and 

 also of other workers ; they are unwearied in the 

 care of the newly hatched larvae, feeding them and 

 collecting various sweets for their nutriment. They 

 visit sugar-casks, they pillage the bee-hives, they 

 despoil the plum-trees of their choicest produce, 

 and on their return pass from cell to cell supplying 

 each restless craving larva with its allotted poriion. 

 The larger grubs require more substantial nourish- 

 ment ; for these they bring home captured flies, 

 and bits of meat stolen from the butcher's stall, 

 and with these dainties feed their expectant young- 

 lings. Thus are they ever busy, for no sooner has 

 one brood become perfected than another is in pro- 

 gress I hence, from being a solitary individual, the 



queen-mother finds herself before the close of sum- 

 mer sunounded liy thousands. 



Kirby and Spence observe that " the number of 

 cells in a vespiary sometimes amounts to more than 

 sixteen thousand. Each cell serves for three gene- 

 rations in the year, which, after making allowance 

 for failures and other casualties, will give a popula- 

 tion of at least thirty thousand. Even at this lime, 

 when the queen-mother has so numerous an army of 

 coadjutors, her industry does not cease ; but she con- 

 tinues to set an example of diligence to the rest of 

 the community. If by accident, before the other 

 females are hatched, the queen-mother perishes, the 

 neuters cease their labours, lose their instincts, and 

 die. The number of females in a populous vespiary 

 is very considerable, amounting to several hundreds. 

 They emerge from the pupa about the end of Au- 

 gust, at the same time with the males, and fly in 

 September and October, when they pair ; but of this 

 large number of females few survive the winter." 

 It is upon these few that the perpetuation of the 

 race depends. 



We have said that the workers assist materially in 

 the care of the larvie, and in the extension and re- 

 paration of the vespiary ; they are, in fact, the active 

 servants of the queen. Some of them are neces- 

 sarily engaged in-doors, while others are employed 

 abroad on foraging expeditions for food. But the 

 wants of the in-door labourers are not neglected : 

 the foragers return, and after supplying the appetites 

 of the larvae, distribute the surplus, which they ap- 

 pear to do with great impartiality. Disgorging the 

 saccharine juice, drop by drop, part is given to the 

 workers, part to the females, and part to the males, 

 and each food-bearing worker is attended by several, 

 each receiving its ration. The males are not idle; 

 they are labourers of an inferior class, and serve as 

 the scavengers of the vespiary, removing all offen- 

 sive matter and extraneous substances : they ex- 

 ceed the workers in size, but are less than the large 

 females. So far all has gone on with order and in 

 harmony ; but October is closing, and the rigour of 

 winter creeping on ; they have laid up no store of 

 food, and numerous cells are occupied by larvse. 

 It would seem as if a sudden frenzy had seized the 

 active tenants of the vespiary ; their devoted attach- 

 ment to the young is changed to apparent hatred ; 

 they drag the larvae out of their cells, sting them, 

 and so destroy them, scattering their lifeless bodies 

 around the entrance of the vespiary. Is it in mercy 

 to the young that they are thus instinct-prompted to 

 act, in order to prevent thereby the pangs of hun- 

 ger and a lingering death ; or has their disposition 

 undergone a radical change ? or rather, are they not 

 impelled to it by that strange overstra'ned feeling 

 of morbid anxiety for the young which leads the 

 rabbit and some other animals to devour their oft- 

 spring, if disturbed at an early age in the nest ? 

 However this may be, thus are the larva; sacrificed. 

 But the death of their destroyers is at hand : with 

 the exception of two or three large females more 

 vigorous than the rest, all perish, and the busy, bust- 

 ling vespiary, so lately the scene of industry and 

 order, is silent. In very wet or very severe seasons 

 the number of females which escape the common 

 doom, is less than in a mild winter, and it often 

 happens from the vespiary becoming deluged that 

 not one escapes the general fate. In some vespi- 

 aries, according to their situation and incidental cir- 

 cumstances, more females escape than in others, but 

 in none is the number considerable. 



Even in the spring, when the female is engaged 

 with her first brood, heavy rains will sometimes 

 flood the new and unfinished vespiary, and destroy 

 the queen-mother and her larva progeny. It is in 

 all probability from these and similar causes that 

 the abundance of wasps varies in diflerent years, 

 their numbers being comparatively scanty during 

 one summer, to what they are during another. 



The vespiary of the common wasp is of a roundish 

 or oval figure ; exiernally it presents a coat of tiling, 

 or rather of thin overlapping pieces of greyish paper 

 like little flat oyster-shells; these cover a number of 

 layers (fifteen or sixteen) constituting the wall of 

 the cell, within the hollow of which the plates of 

 cells or combs are arranged. These in a finished 

 vespiary are from twelve to sixteen in number, and 

 are placed not vertically as in the bee-hive, but hori- 

 zontally, the cells being on the under side of each 

 table. These tables are not only fixed to the sides 

 of the outer walls, bid have their centre supported 

 by suspension rods, like colonnades of pillars with 

 the base and capital wider than the shaft. The top 

 of each table forms a floor, where amidst the sus- 

 pension rods the wasps can walk about, attending 

 to the young in the cells above their heads, having 

 a clear space of about half an inch from the cells to 

 the platform. Two holes at the bottom of the nest, 

 to each of which a covered way leads, are the doors, 

 one of ingress, the other of egress, and orifices admit 

 of access from one stage to another. The whole 

 structure is generally abou.t three feet in circum- 

 ference ; we have seen largr?r and smaller. In the 



building of this beautiful structure the dome is first 

 finished; then brought lower down and another 

 plate added, and secuied to the former by stout sus- 

 pension rods. The first layer or two is ttie work of 

 the solitary female; the workers in due time come 

 to her assistance, and carry on the operations, which 

 are not completed till the middle or close of autumn. 

 Winter comes, and it then onW serves as the dor- 

 mitory of a few females. These in the spring 

 commence the whole over again, for the same 

 structure is never used a second season. 



Fig. 3(i.">(j represents a section of the wasp's nest : 

 a a, the external wall ; b, c c, five small terraces of 

 cells for the neuter wasps; t/rf, e e, three rows of 

 larger cells for the males and females. Fis. :\(iST 

 represents— A, one of the rods from which the 

 platforms are suspended; B, a portion of the 

 external crust. 



The hornet (Vespa Crabro) builds essentially the 

 same kind of structure as the wasp, but of a coarser 

 material ; the colour of the papier-machd is gene- 

 rally of a yellowish brown. This insect often takes 

 up its situation in the hollows of logs or decayed 

 trees, which it enlarges to suit the size of the ves- 

 piary. The strong mandibles of the hornet enable 

 It to work with facility not only upon the soft wood, 

 but even, as Reaumur says, to bore a winding w ay to 

 the nest through the solid and undecayed substance 

 of the tree. It is not, however, always thatthe hor- 

 net builds in the hollows of trees ; it often rears its 

 vespiary in thatch, or under the tiles of old barns 

 and outhouses. 



Fig. 3658 shows a hornet's nest in its first stage. 

 There are two species of wasp, Vespa Holsatica, 

 Fabr., and Vespa Britannica, Leach (it indeed they 

 be truly distinct), which build a pendent oval ves- 

 piary with a smooth outside, attached to the 

 branches of a shrub or tree ; the aperture is at the 

 pendent apex. Mr. Shuckard says that the nest of- 

 V'espa Holsaiica is much larger than that of the' 

 other, and that in the north they often occur in gar- 

 dens fixed to gooseberry bushes. It was in a goose- 

 berry bush, in a garden at a little distance from 

 Buxton, in Derbyshire, that we ourselves observed 

 the nest of one of these wasps. It was pendent, and 

 loosely constructed externally of foliaceous layere. 

 Mr. Shuckard closes his observations by saying: 

 " 1 strongly suspect that the Vespa Holsatica and 

 Vespa Britannica are identical." (' Mag, Nat. Hist.,' 

 1839, p. 458. ) Fig. 3659 shows the section of a nest 

 of Vespa Britannica. Fig. 3(HiO represents the nest 

 of this species, or of Vespa Holsatica, attached to 

 the branch of a willow. Its length was between 

 nine and ten inches, and it contained five plallorms 

 of cells, as seen at Fig. 3661, showing a section : the 

 entrance is indicated by the letter g ; a, the top ; b, 

 the pendent extremity ; c d e, layers of cells. 



There are certain wasps, of the genus Epipone, 

 which form terraces of ceils, not unlike those of the 

 common wasp, but without the protection of an 

 outer wall, and quite open to the weather. Swam- 

 merdam found a nest ot this description attached to 

 the stem of a nettle, and R6aumur describes ihem 

 as fixed to the branch of a thorn, to shrubs, and 

 even to stalks of grass. Fig. 3662 shows Epipone 

 nidulans, and nest. 



Among the most interesting wasps' nests which 

 we have seen and examined is one of a species in 

 South America: it is pensile, and suspended from 

 the branch of a tree ; its shape is like t»o cones base 

 to base, but of ditt'erent lengths, the shorter cone 

 pointing downwards. Its external wall is composed 

 of stout, tough, white cardboard, which takes ink 

 from a pen extremely well ; it is smooth, and of a 

 close texture. The aperture for admission is at the 

 lower apex ; the length of the specimen we measured 

 is nine inches; the circumference at the widest part, 

 where the two cones meet, about eighteen inches. 

 Internally, six stout platforms stretch horizontally 

 across; they are smooth above, with hexagonal cells 

 below. These platforms are not, however, flat, but 

 rather concave above, like a watch-glass reversed. 

 The centre of each is perforated for admission at the 

 extremity of a short funnel-like projection, and by 

 these apertures access is gained from story to story; 

 the whole, in fact, is a masterpiece of woikinanship 

 and an exquisite display of the results of instinct. 

 We have seen some not quite so symmetrical as the 

 specimen described, but in other respects the same. 

 Fig. 3663 represents one of these pendent wasps' 

 nests, from Cayenne ; a portion of the side wall is 

 cut out to show the interior. 



The European wasps arc not storers of honey; but 

 this rule does not apply to certain foreign si)ecies. 

 In the ' Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 1841 , the ne»t of a honey- 

 wasp is described and figured. The species is new, 

 and from South America. Its describer, Mr, A. 

 White, has given it the scientific appellation of 

 Myrapterascutellaris, and observes that it is the same 

 as that of which Azara gives so many interesting 

 details under the name of the " Chiguana Wasp." 

 The general form of this nest, w hich is suspended to 

 a slender branch, is ovate ; its external wall consists 



