THE WASP. 



531 



occupations ; the two first are for propagating 

 the species, the last for nursing, defending, 

 and supporting the rising progeny. Among 

 bees, however, there is seldom above a queen 

 or two in a hive ; among wasps there are above 

 two or three hundred. 



As soon as the summer begins to invigorate 

 the insect tribes, the wasps are the most of 

 the number, and diligently employed either 

 in providing provisions for their nest, if already 

 made ; or in making one, if the former habita- 

 tion be too small to receive the increasing 

 community. The nest is one of the most 

 curious objects in natural history, and con- 

 trived almost as artificially as that of the bees 

 themselves. Their principal care is to seek 

 out a hole that has been begun by some other 

 animal, a field-mouse, a rat, or a mole, to 

 build their nests in. They sometimes build 

 upon the plain, where they are sure of the 

 dryness of their situation ; but most commonly 

 on the side of a bank, to avoid the rain or 

 water that would otherwise annoy them. 

 When they have chosen a proper place, they 

 go to work with wonderful assiduity. Their 

 first labour is to enlarge and widen the 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 pre- 

 vent 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, however, 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 else- 

 where. 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 trowl it with their trunks, still going 

 backwards as they work. Having repeated 

 this operation three or four times, the compo- 

 sition is at length flatted out until it becomes 

 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, 

 arid strengthening every partition in propor- 

 tion to the wants or convenience of the general 

 fabric. Other working wasps come quickly 

 after to repeat the same operation, laying 

 more leaves upon the former, till at length, 

 after much toil, they have finished the large 

 roof, which is to secure them from the tumb- 

 ling in of the earth. This dome being finished, 

 they make another entrance to their habita- 

 tion, 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 composition than the position which they 

 are always seen to obtain. The honey-comb 

 of the bee is edge-ways with respect to the 

 hive ; that of the wasp is flat, and the mouth 

 of every cell opens downwards. Thus is their 

 habitation contrived, story above story, sup- 

 ported by several rows of pillars, which give 

 firmness to the whole building, while the 

 upper story is flat-roofed, and as smooth as the 

 pavement of a room, laid with squares of mar- 

 ble. The wasps can freely walk upon these 

 stories between the pillars to do whatever 

 their wants require. The pillars are very 

 hard and compact, being larger at each end 

 than in the middle, not much unlike the col- 

 umns of a building. All the cells of the nest 

 are only destined for the reception of 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 working 

 part of the community. When the females 

 are impregnated by the males, they lay their 

 eggs, one in each cell, and stick it in with a 

 kind of gummy matter to prevent its falling 

 out. From this egg proceeds the insect in its 

 worm state, of which the old ones are extremely 

 careful, feeding it from time to time till it 

 becomes large, and entirely fills up its cell. 

 But the wasp community differs from that of 



