30 ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



the outer walls being extended at the same time, and by the end of the 

 summer there is generally from twelve to fifteen platforms of cells. 

 Each contains about 1,060 cells, forty-nine being contained in an inch 

 and a half square, and of course making the enormous number of about 

 16,000 cells in one colony. Reaumur, upon these data, calculates that 

 one vespiary may produce every year more than 30,000 Wasps, reckon- 

 ing only 10,000 cells, and each serving successively for the cradle of 

 three generations. But although the whole structure is built at the 

 expense of so much labour and ingenuity, it has scarcely been finished 

 before the winter sets in, when it becomes nearly useless, and serves 

 only for the abode of a few benumbed females, who abandon it on the 

 approach of spring, and never return, for Wasps do not, like Mason Bees, 

 ever make use of the same nest for more than one season. 



Both Reaumur and the younger Huber studied the proceedings of the 

 Common Wasp in the manner which has been so successful in observing 

 Bees by means of glazed hives and other contrivances. In this these 

 naturalists were greatly aided by the extreme affection of Wasps for their 

 young ; for though their nest is carried off, or even cut in various direc- 

 tions and exposed to the light, they never desert it, nor relax their at- 

 tention to their progeny. When a Wasp's nest is removed from its 

 natural situation and covered with a glass hive, the first operation of the 

 inhabitants is to repair the injuries it has suffered. They carry off with 

 surprising activity all the earth or other matter which has fallen by acci- 

 dent into the nest; and when they have got it thoroughly cleared of 

 everything extraneous, they begin to secure it from further derange- 

 ment by fixing it to the glass with papyraceous columns, similar to those 

 which we have already described. The breaches which the nest may 

 have suffered are then repaired, and the thickness of the walls is aug- 

 mented, with the design, perhaps, of more effectually excluding the light. 



It may not be out of place to relate a curious instance of the hardi- 

 hood (if I may so call it) of the Wasp. One of these insects was crawl- 

 ing up a window, when a lady seized it with a pair of scissors with the 

 intention of killing it, but by accident cut it in two ; the Wasp was no 

 longer thought of for some time, but the lady happening by chance to 

 look at it, thought the two parts had approached nearer each other ; it 

 was then watched, and after being separated for three or four hours they 

 gradually joined ; it then rested for a few minutes, and the parts ap- 

 peared to be as firmly fixed as before the accident had happened, it then 

 crawled up the window and flew away. This may be relied on as a fact.* 



Cljtrfc 



Although the HIVE BEE (Apis Mellifica) has engaged the attention 

 of the curious from the earliest ages, recent discoveries prove that we 

 * J. B.B. 



