532 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



the bee in this ; that among the latter the 

 working bees take the parential duties upon 

 them, whereas among the wasps the females 

 alone are permitted to feed their young, and 

 to nurse their rising progeny. For this pur- 

 pose the female waits with great patience till 

 the working. wasps have brought in their pro- 

 visions, which she takes from them, and cuts 

 into pieces. She then goes with great com- 

 posure from cell to cell, and feeds every young 

 one with her mouth. When the young worms 

 have come to a certain size they leave off eat- 

 ing, and begin to spin a very fine silk, fixing 

 their first end to the entrance of the cell : then 

 turning their heads, first on one side, then on 

 the other, they fix the thread to different parts, 

 and thus they make a sort of door, which 

 serves to close up the mouth of the cell. After 

 this they divest themselves of their skins after 

 the usual mode of transformation ; the aurelia, 

 by degrees, begins to emancipate itself from 

 its shell ; by little and little it thrusts out its 

 legs and wings, and insensibly acquires the 

 colour and shape of its parent. 



The wasp thus formed, and prepared for 

 depredation, becomes a bold, troublesome, and 

 dangerous insect : there are no dangers which 

 it will not encounter in pursuit of its prey, 

 and nothing seems to satiate its gluttony. 

 Though it can gather no honey of its own, no 

 animal is more fond of sweets. For this pur- 

 pose it will pursue the bee and the humble- 

 bee, destroy them with its sting, and then 

 plunder them of their honey-bag, with which 

 it flies triumphantly loaded to its nest to re- 

 gale its young. Wasps are ever fond of 

 making their nests in the neighbourhood of bees , 

 merely to have an opportunity of robbing their 

 hives, and feasting on the spoil. Yet the bees 

 are not found always patiently submissive to 

 their tyranny, but fierce battles are sometimes 

 seen to ensue, in which the bees make up by 

 conduct and numbers what they want in per- 

 sonal prowess. When there is no honey to 

 be had, they seek for the best and sweetest 

 fruits, and they are never mistaken in their 

 choice. From the garden they fly to the city, 

 to the grocer's shops, and butcher's shambles. 

 They will sometimes carry off bits of flesh 

 half as big as themselves, with which they fly 

 to their nests for the nourishment of their brood. 

 Those who cannot drive them away, lay for 

 them a piece of ox's liver, which being with- 

 out fibres, they prefer to other flesh; and when- 

 ever they are found, all other flies are seen to 

 desert the place immediately. Such is the 

 dread with which these little animals impress 

 all the rest of the insect tribes, which they 

 seize and devour without mercy, that they va- 

 nish at their approach. Wherever they fly, 

 like the eagle or the falcon, they form a de- 

 sert in the air round them. In this manner 



the summer is passed in plundering the neigh, 

 bourhood, and rearing up their young : every 

 day adds to their numbers; and from their 

 strength, agility, and indiscriminate appetite 

 for every kind of provision, were they as long- 

 lived as the bee, they would soon swarm upon 

 the face of nature, and become the most noxi- 

 ous plague of man ; but providentially their 

 lives are measured to their mischief, and the) 

 live but a single season. 



While the summer heats continue, they are 

 bold, voracious, and enterprising; but as the 

 sun withdraws, it seems to rob them of their 

 courage and activity. In proportion as the 

 cold increas-es, they are seen to become more 

 domestic ; they seldom leave the nest ; they 

 make but short adventures from home, they 

 flutter about in the noon-day heats, and soon 

 after return chilled and feeble. 



As their calamities increase, new passions 

 soon begin to take place ; the care for posteri- 

 ty no longer continues ; and as the parents are 

 no longer able to provide their growing pro. 

 geny a supply, they take the barbarous reso- 

 lution of sacrificing them all to the necessity 

 of the times. In this manner, like a garrison 

 upon short allowance, all the useless hands are 

 destroyed ; the young worms, which a little 

 before they fed and protected with so much 

 assiduity, are now butchered, and dragged 

 from their cells. As the cold increases, they 

 no longer find sufficient warmth in their nests, 

 which grow hateful to them, and they fly to 

 seek it in the corners of houses, and places 

 that receive an artificial heat. But the win- 

 ter is still insupportable ; and before the new 

 year begins, they wither and die ; the work- 

 ing-wasps first, the males soon following, and 

 many of the females suffer in the general ca- 

 lamity. In every nest, however, one or two 

 females survive the winter, and having been 

 impregnated by the male during the preceding 

 season, she begins in spring to lay her eggs 

 in a little hole of her own contrivance. This 

 bundle of eggs, which is clustered together 

 like grapes, soon produces two worms, which 

 the female takes proper precaution to defend 

 and supply, and these, when hatched, soon 

 give assistance to the female, who is employed 

 in hatching two more ; these also gathering 

 strength, extricate themselves out of the web 

 that enclosed them, and become likewise as- 

 sistants to their mother; fifteen days after, two 

 more make their appearance ; thus is the com- 

 munity every day increasing, while the fe- 

 male lays in every cell, first a male and then 

 a female. These soon after become breeders 

 in turn, till from a single female, ten thousand 

 wasps are seen produced before the month of 

 June. After the female has thus produced 

 her progeny, which are distributed in differ- 

 ent districts, they assemble from all parts m 



