THE WASP. 



583 



ie middle of summer, and provide for them- 

 selves the large and commodious habitation 

 \vhich has been described above. 1 



Such is the history of the social wasp ; but, 

 as among bees, so also among these insects, 

 there are various tribes that live in solitude ; 

 these lay their eggs in a hole for the purpose, 

 and the parent dies long before the birth of its 

 offspring. In the principal species of the So- 

 litary-Wasps, the insect is smaller than the 

 working-wasp of the social kind. The fila- 

 ment by which the corselet is joined to the 

 body, is longer and more distinctly seen, and 

 the whole colour of the insect is blacker than 

 in the ordinary kinds. But it is not their 

 figure, but the manners of this extraordinary 

 insect, that claim our principal regard. 



From the end of May to the beginning of 

 July, this wasp is seen most diligently em- 

 ployed. The whole purpose of its life seems 

 to be in contriving and fitting up a commodi- 

 ous apartment for its young one, which is not 

 to succeed it till the year ensuing. For this 

 end it is employed, with unwearied assiduity, 

 in boring a hole in the finest earth some inches 

 deep, but not much wider than the diame- 

 ter of its own body. This is but a gallery 

 leading to a wider apartment destined for the 

 convenient lodgment of its young. As it al- 

 ways chooses a gravelly soil to work in, and 

 where the earth is almost as hard as stone it- 

 self, the digging and hollowing this apartment 

 is an enterprise of no small labour : for effect. 



1 " One of the most remarkable of our native social 

 wasps is the Vespa Britannica, or tree-wasp, which is 

 not uncommon in the northern, hut seldom to be met 

 with in the southern parts of the island. Instead of bur- 

 rowing in the ground like the common wasp, or in the 

 hollows of trees like the hornet, it boldly swings its nest 

 from the extremity of a branch, where it exhibits some 

 resemblance, in size and colour, to a Welsh wig, hung 

 out to dry. We have seen more than one of these nests 

 on the same tree, atCatrine, in Ayrshire, and at Wemyss 

 Bay, in Renfrewshire. The tree which the Britannic 

 wasp prefers is the silver fir, whose broad flat branch 

 serves as a protection to the suspended nest both from the 

 sun and the rain. 



" Reaumur has given a very interesting account of the 

 wasps of Cayenne, which hang their nests on trees. Like 

 the bird of Africa called the Loxia, they fabricate a per- 

 fect hou?e, capable of containing many hundreds of their 

 community, and suspend it on high out of the reach of 

 attack. But the Cayenne wasp is a more expert artist 

 than the bird. He is a card-maker; and travellers of 

 veracity agree that the card with which he forms the ex- 

 terior covering of his abode is so smooth, so strong, so 

 uniform in its texture, and so white, that the most skil- 

 ful manufacturer of this substance might be proud of the 

 work. 



" The nest of the card-making wasp is impervious to 

 water. It hangs upon the branch of a tree ; and those 

 rain-drops which penetrate through the leaves never rest 

 upon its hard and polished surface. A small opening 

 for the entrance of the insects terminates its funnel- 

 shaped bottom. It is impossible to unite more perfectly 

 the qualities of lightness and strength." Insect Archi- 

 tecture. 



ing its operations, this insect is furnished with 

 two teeth, which are strong and firm, but not 

 sufficiently hard to penetrate the substance 

 through which it is resolved to make its way. 

 In order therefore to soften that earth which 

 it is unable to pierce, it is furnished with a 

 gummy liquor, which it emits upon the place, 

 and which renders it more easily separable 

 from the rest, and the whole becoming a kind 

 of soft paste, is removed to the mouth of the 

 habitation. The animal's provision of liquor 

 in these operations is, however, soon exhaus- 

 ted; and it is then seen taking up water either 

 from some neighbouring flower or stream, in 

 order to supply the deficiency. 



At length, after much toil, a hole some 

 inches deep is formed, at the bottom of which 

 is a large cavity ; and to this no other hostile 

 insect would venture to find its way, from the 

 length and the narrowness of the defile through 

 which it would be obliged to pass. In this 

 the solitary wasp lays its egg, which is des- 

 tined to continue the species ; there the nas- 

 cent animal is to continue for about nine 

 months, unattended and immured, and at first 

 appearance the most helpless insect of the 

 creation. But when we come to examine, 

 new wonders offer ; no other insect can boast 

 so copiously luxurious a provision, or such con- 

 firmed security. 



As soon as the mother wasp has deposited 

 her egg at the bottom of the hole, her next 

 care is to furnish it with a supply of provi- 

 sions, which may be offered to the young in- 

 sect as soon as it leaves the egg. To this end 

 she procures a number of little green worms, 

 generally from eight to twelve, and these are 

 to serve as food for the young one the instant 

 it awakens into life. When this supply is 

 regularly arranged and laid in, the old one 

 then, with as much assiduity as it before 

 worked out its hole, now closes the mouth of 

 the passage ; and thus leaving its young one 

 immured in perfect security, and in a copious 

 supply of animal food, she dies, satisfied with 

 having provided for a future progeny. 



When the young one leaves the egg, it is 

 scarcely visible, and is seen immured among 

 a number of insects, infinitely larger than it- 

 self, ranged in proper order around it, which, 

 however, give it no manner of apprehension. 

 Whether the parent, when she laid in the in- 

 sect provision, contrived to disable the worms 

 from resistance, or whether they were at first 

 incapable of any, is not known. Certain it is, 

 that the young glutton feasts upon the living 

 spoil without any control : his game lies at his 

 hand, and he devours one after the other as the 

 calls of appetite incite him. The life of the 

 young animal is therefore spent in the most 

 luxurious manner, till its whole stock of worms 

 is exhausted, when the time of its transforma- 



