292 A BOOK OF INSECTS 



the original queen. As autumn approaches, certain large 

 cells are added to the lower combs. Indeed, the lowest 

 comb of all is usually exclusively composed of these 

 special cells, which may be termed the royal nurseries. 

 In them a brood of princes and princesses is reared — i.e. 

 males and functionally perfect females. This brood may 

 consist of scores or hundreds of individuals according to 

 the prosperity of the community. The amours and 

 merry-making of these royal personages keep the nest in 

 a state of joyous activity, for the advent of young queens 

 is not a signal for revolt, as is the case with hive -bees. 

 The workers go to and fro with their burdens, the grubs 

 are cleaned and fed with due care. Yet the prescient 

 observer knows full well that the day of the wasp is 

 almost over — that the great kingdom is tottering to its 

 fall. The chills of autumn will strike to the heart of this 

 prosperous community with the terror of a pestilence. 

 Starvation will ravage it, for the wasps have stored no 

 emergency rations within their paper walls ; and with the 

 cold of approaching winter gnawing at their vitals they 

 cease to roam abroad in search of food. Thus they die — 

 die by tens, by hundreds, by thousands — the enfeebled 

 workers actually dragging the half-grown grubs from their 

 cells, and casting them forth to share the common fate of 

 the community. Only the young queens survive, destined 

 as they are to found new colonies in the year to come. 

 After mating with a drone, each one seeks a hiding-place 

 and passes the winter in lonely widowhood. 



Wasps are attacked by numerous parasites, including 

 the curious beetle called Metcecus paradoxus, which is 

 said only to infest Vespa vulgaris. In the nests of V. rufa, 

 a cuckoo wasp known as V. austriaca is sometimes found. 

 It has no workers, and presumably foists itself upon its 

 hosts in much the same way that the Psithyrus bee enters 



