810 



A HISTORY OF 



go to work with wonderful assiduity. Their 

 tirst labour is lo enlarge and widen Ihe hole, 

 taking away the earth, and carrying it off to 

 some distance. They are perfectly formed 

 for labour, being furnished with a trunk above 

 their mouths, two saws on each side, which 

 play to the right and left against each other, 

 and six strong muscular legs to support them. 

 They cut the earth into small parcels with 

 their saws, and carry it out with their legs or 

 paws. This is the work of some days; and 

 at length the outline of their habitation is 

 formed, making a cavity of about a foot and 

 a half every way. While some are working 

 in this manner, others are roving the fields to 

 seek out materials for their building. To 

 prevent the earth from falling down and 

 crushing their rising city into ruin, they make 

 a sort of roof with their gluey substance, to 

 which they begin to fix the rudiments of their 

 building, working from the top downwards, 

 as if they were hanging a bell; which, how- 

 ever, at length they close up at the bottom. 

 The materials with which they build their 

 nests are bits of wood and glue. The wood 

 they get where they can from the rails and 

 posts which they meet with in the fields and 

 elsewhere. These they saw and divide into a 

 multitude of small fibres, of which they take 

 up little bundles in their claws, letting fall 

 upon them a few drops of gluey matter, with 

 which their bodies are provided, by the help 

 of which they knead the whole composition 

 into a paste, which serves them in their future 

 building. When they have returned with 

 this to the nest, they stick their load of paste 

 on that part where they make their walls and 

 partitions; they tread it close with their feet, 

 and trowel it with their trunks, still going 

 backwards as they work. Having repeated 

 this operation three or four times, the com- 

 position is at length flatted out until it be- 

 comes a small leaf of a gray colour, much 

 finer than paper, and of a pretty firm texture. 

 This done, the same wasp returns to the field 

 to collect a second load of paste, repeating 

 the same several times, placing layer upon 

 layer, and strengthening every partition in 

 proportion to the wants or convenience of 

 the general fabric. Other working wasps 

 come quickly after to repeat the same opera- 

 tion, laying more leaves upon the forme , till 



at length, after much toil, they have finished 

 the large roof, which is to secure them from 

 the tumbling in of the earth. This dome 

 being finished, they make another entrance 

 to their habitation, designed either for letting 

 in the warmth of the sun, or for escaping, in 

 case one door be invaded by plunderers. 

 Certain however it is, that by one of these 

 they always enter, by the other they sally 

 forth to their toil; each hole being so small 

 that they can pass but one at a time. The 

 walls being thus composed, and the whole 

 somewhat of the shape of a pear, they labour 

 at their cells, which they compose of the 

 same paper-like substance that goes to the 

 formation of the outside works. Their combs 

 differ from those of bees not less in the com- 

 position, than the position which they are 

 always seen to obtain. The honey-comb of 

 the bee is edgeways with respect to the hive ; 

 that of the wasp is Hat, and the mouth of 

 every cell opens downwards. Thus is their 

 habitation contrived, story above story, sup- 

 ported by several rows ot pillars, which give 

 firmness to the whole building, while the up- 

 per story is Hat-roofed, and as smooth as the 

 pavement of a room, laid with squares of 

 marble. The wasps can freely walk upon 

 these stories between the pillars, to do what- 

 ever their wants require. The pillars are 

 very hard and compact, being larger at each 

 end than in the middle, not much unlike the 

 columns of a building. All the cells of the 

 nest are oidy destined for the reception ot 

 the young, being replete with neither wax 

 nor honey. 



Each cell is like that of the bee, hexagonal : 

 but they are of two sorts ; the one larger, for 

 the production of the male and female wasps; 

 the other less, for the reception of the work- 

 ing part of the community. When the fe- 

 males are impregnated by the males, they lay 

 their eggs, one in each cell, anil stick it in 

 with a kind of gummy matter to prevent its 

 falling out. From this egg proceeds the in- 

 sect in its worm state, of which the old ones 

 are extremely careful, feeding it from time to 

 time till it becomes large, and entirely tills up 

 its cell. But the wasp community differs 

 from that of the bee in this; that among the 

 latter the working-bees take the parental 

 duties upon them, whereas among the wasps 



