530 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



to carry it to its nest. Wasps live, like bees, 

 in community, and sometimes ten or twelve 

 thousand are found inhabiting a single nest. 



Of all other insects the wasp is the most 

 fierce, voracious, and most dangerous, when 

 enraged. They are seen wherever flesh is 

 cutting up, gorging themselves with the spoil, 



is not massive. It is formed of several layers, which 

 have vacancies between them : each layer is as thin as a 

 sheet of paper. In proportion as the wasps thicken this 

 envelope, they build another layer on those which are 

 already formed. The number of these layers sometimes 

 exceeds fifteen or sixteen. 



Nothing can be more amusing than to see these wasps 

 working for the purpose of extending or thickening this 

 envelope. Several of them are engaged at this work, 

 which they perform with the greatest celerity, and with- 

 out the least confusion. They proceed into the country to 

 find the necessary materials: she that has collected some, 

 returns loaded with a little ball composed of a soft paste; 

 she holds it between her jaws. Arrived at the vespiary, 

 she takes it to the place where she intends to labour, 

 and immediately applies it there. She walks backwards; 

 at each step which she makes, she leaves before her a 

 portion of the ball, without detaching it from the rest, 

 which she holds between her two fore feet. When she 

 has thus applied it all, she unites and smooths it, by re- 

 passing over it several times. The materials which she 

 employs are filaments of wood, which she tears off with 

 her mandibles: she moistens and kneads them well pre- 

 viously to use. 



These vespiaries contain males, females, and workers : 

 these last, as among the bees and other social insects, 

 are charged with all the labours of the society. Those 

 that go in search of provision are continually employed 

 in the chase ; some seize on insects by main force, which 

 they bring back almost entire to the nest; others pillage 

 the shops of butchers, where each one attaches herself to 

 the piece of meat which she prefers, and when she is 

 satiated, cuts off a piece, sometimes larger than herself, 

 to carry it home. Others again plunder the fruits of 

 gardens and orchards: they gnaw or suck them, and bring 

 back the juice. All share their spoils with the males 

 and females, and even with the other workers ; and the 

 division is made with the most perfect good will on all 

 sides. 



The mothers do not fly into the country, excepting 

 in spring and autumn. During the summer, they are 

 shut up in the interior of the vespiary, occupied in lay- 

 ing, and especially in nursing their larvae. 



A vespiary which has all its combs usually contains 

 fifteen or sixteen thousand cells, each of which is filled 

 by an egg or a nymph. It is the larvae principally that 

 occupy the attention of the wasps. The latter feed them 

 in the same manner in which birds feed their young, 

 giving them from time to time the bill-full, after having 

 softened in their mouth the aliments which the larvae 

 could not otherwise digest. 



Twenty days having elapsed since the eggs were laid, 

 the larvae are now ready to be metamorphosed into 

 nymphs. Like those of the hornet, they inclose them- 

 selves in their cells, and become perfect insects eight or 

 nine days after they have been changed into nymphs. 

 The cell which a young wasp has quitted does not re- 

 main a long time vacant. An old wasp cleans it out 

 and renders it fit for the reception of a new egg. 



The cells destined for the eggs which produce the 

 workers are never placed among those which contain the 

 'ggs destined to give birth to males and females. The 

 edifice buflt by the wasps, and which occupies them during 

 some months, is to last no longer than a year. This habi- 

 tation, so populous during summer, is almost deserted in 



and then flying to their nests with their reek- 

 ing prey. They make war also on every 

 other fly, and the spider himself dreads their 

 approaches. 



Every community among bees is composed 

 of females, or queens, drones or males, and 

 neutral or working bees. Wasps have similar 



the winter, and entirely abandoned in the spring: most 

 of its inhabitants have perished the preceding autumn. 

 Some females destined to perpetuate the species pass the 

 winter in a state of numbness, and in the following spring 

 each of them becomes the foundress of a new republic, 

 and the mother of all the individuals which compose it. 

 The workers, as being the most useful, are the first who 

 are born: the males and females do not appear until to- 

 wards the end of summer, or the commencement of 

 autumn: they couple in the vespiary itself in which they 

 were born. 



The occupation of the males in the vespiary is limited 

 to cleaning it out and removing the dead bodies: they 

 are smaller than the females, and larger than the workers, 

 which are the smallest of the three kinds of individuals 

 which compose the society. Like the males of the bees, 

 they are destitute of a sting. The mothers and the 

 workers are alone provided with this organ. The sting 

 of the females is longer than that of the workers, and the 

 wound which the wasps inflict is more severe, and causes 

 a sharper pain than that made by the bees. The violent 

 smarting which it produces is, however, caused in the 

 same manner, by a poisonous fluid, which is introduced 

 into the wound. 



Peace does not always reign in the societies of the 

 wasps. Combats often take place among the workers, 

 or between them and the males. The last individuals 

 are more cowardly or weaker than the others; but these 

 combats are rarely fatal. 



When the cold weather first approaches, the workers 

 snatch from their cells the larvae which are not yet meta- 

 morphosed, and assisted by the males, turn them neck and 

 heels out of the nest. It appears that they know that 

 the little ones could not support cold and hunger during 

 the winter season, when at this early period they can 

 scarcely find wherewithal to nourish them. To cause 

 them thus to perish is, therefore, an act of mercy, not of 

 cruelty. It is the quick prevention of a long and linger- 

 ing state of misery. 



Notwithstanding all the admirable industry of the 

 wasps, agriculturists are not the less desirous to get rid 

 of these insects, which do most particular damage to 

 fruits, even previously to their maturity. Many means 

 have been pointed out for destroying the species which 

 live in a social state, especially the common wasp. 

 When the places which they inhabit can be discovered, 

 it is easy to dispatch thousands of them in a little time. 

 Some have adopted the plan of putting glue on blades of 

 straw, and placing them in the neighbourhood of the nest, 

 but this method is long and troublesome. Boiling water 

 cast into the hole may be used with success. But when 

 the nests are remote from houses, a sufficient quantity 

 cannot well be obtained to destroy the wasps: sulphur 

 matches are far more efficacious. The aperture of the 

 hole which conducts to the vespiary must be widened 

 a little, and lighted matches introduced into the hole, 

 after which its entrance must be closed with small stones, 

 so that the wasps cannot get out without mining, which 

 they cannot do in a little time: they will then assuredly 

 be suffocated by the vapour of the sulphur. Care must 

 be taken, however, not to close the hole so exactly as to 

 prevent all access of air, and give no issue to the smoke, 

 for then the matches would be too soon extinguished. 

 Supplement to the English edition of the minimal King- 

 dom, by Baron Cuvier. 



