ANIMAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL LIFE 



32V 



When spring comes each queen builds a small nest sus- 

 pended from a tree branch, and consisting of a small comb 

 inclosed in a covering or envelope open at the lower end. 

 The nest is composed of " wasp paper," made by chewing 

 bits of weather-beaten wood taken from old fences or out- 

 buildings. In each of the cells the queen lays an egg. 

 She deposits in the cell a small mass of food, consisting of 

 some chewed insects or spiders. From these eggs hatch 

 grubs which eat the food prepared for them, grow, pupate, 

 and issue as worker bees, winged and slightly smaller 

 than the queen (Fig. 197). The workers enlarge the nest, 

 adding more combs and making many cells, in each of 

 which the queen lays an egg. The workers provision the 

 cell with chewed insects, and other broods of workers are 



rapidly hatched. The 

 community grows in 

 numbers and the nest 

 grows in size until it 

 comes to be the great 

 ball-like oval mass which 

 we know so well as a 

 hornets' nest (Figs. 198 

 and 199), a thing to be 

 left untouched. Some- 

 times the nest is built 

 unde rground. When 

 disturbed, they swarm 

 out of the hole and 

 fiercely attack any in- 

 vading foe in sight. 

 After a number of 

 broods of workers has 

 been produced, broods of males and females appear and 

 mating takes place. In the late fall the males and all of 

 the many workers die, leaving only the new queens to live 

 through the winter. 



FIG. 197. The yellow-jacket (Vespa), a social 

 wasp, a, worker ; b, queen. 



