WASPS. 195 



in their attention to their young. When placed in a glass 

 hive, they are perfectly peaceable, and never attack the ob- 

 server, if he calmly contemplates their operations ; for, natu- 

 rally, they do not sting, unless they are irritated. -^ 



Immediately after a wasp's nest has been transported from 

 its natural situation, and covered with a glass hive, the first 

 operation of the insects is to repair the injuries it has suffered. 

 With wonderful activity they carry off all the earth and foreign 

 bodies that may have accidentally been conveyed into the hive. 

 Some of them occupy themselves in fixing the nest to the top 

 and sides of the hive by pillars of paper, similar to those which 

 support the different stories or strata of combs ; others repair 

 the breaches it has sustained; and others fortify it by aug- 

 menting considerably the thickness of its external cover. 

 This external envelope is an operation peculiar to wasps. 

 Its construction requires great labor ; for it frequently ex- 

 ceeds an inch and a half in thickness, and is composed of a 

 number of strata or layers as thin as paper, between each of 

 which there is a void space. This cover is a kind of box for 

 inclosing the cornbs, and defending them from the rain which 

 occasionally penetrates the earth. For this purpose it is ad- 

 mirably adapted. If it were one solid mass, the contact of 

 water would penetrate the whole and reach the combs. But 

 to prevent this fatal effect, the animals leave considerable 

 vacuities between the vaulted layers, which are generally 

 fifteen or sixteen in number. By this ingenious piece of 

 architecture, one or two layers may be moistened with water, 

 while the others are not in the least affected. 



The materials employed by wasps in the construction of 

 their nests, are very different from those made use of by the 

 honey-bee. Instead of collecting the farina of flowers, and 

 digesting it into wax, the wasps gnaw with their two fangs, 

 which are strong and serrated, small fibres of wood from the 

 sashes of windows, the posts of espaliers, garden doors, &c. t 

 but never attempt growing or green timber. These fibres, 

 though very slender, are often a line, or a twelfth part of an 

 inch long. After cutting a certain number of them, the ani- 

 mals collect them into minute bundles, transport them to 

 their nest, and, by means of a glutinous substance furnished 

 from their own bodies, form them into a moist and ductile 

 paste. Of this substance, or papier mache, they construct 

 tl e external cover, the partitions of the nest, the hexagonal 

 cells, and the solid columns which support the several layers 

 or stories of combs 



