T H E W A S p. 315 



|)rcgnated during the preceding feafon, in fpring each lays eggs in a little 

 Bole of her own contrivance. This bundle of eggs, which iscluftered like 

 grapes, produces two worms ; thefe, when hatched, give affiflance td 

 the female, who fs erriployed in hatching two more; thefe gathering 

 ftrength, extricate themfelves from their web, and become alTillants : 

 fifteen days after, two more appear ; thus the community daily increafes,- 

 The female lays in every cell a male and female : thefe foon breed in 

 turn^ till, from a fingle female, ten thoufand wafps are produced before 

 June. Afterwards they aflemble in the middle of fummer, and provide 

 for themfelves the large and commodious habitation we have defcribed. 

 In the principal fpccies of the Solitary Wasp, the infed is fmaller 

 than the working wafp. The filament, by which the corfelet is joined 

 to the body, is longer and m.ore diftindt, and the infefb blacker than in 

 the ordinary kinds. From May to July, this wafp is mod dili- 

 gently employed, in contriving and fitting up a commodious apartmenc 

 ■for its young, which is not to fucceed it till the year enfuing, with un- 

 wearied affiduity boring, a hole into the fineft earth fome inches deep, 

 but not wider than its own body. This gallery leads to a wider apart- 

 ment for lodging its young. It always choofes a gravelly foil, where 

 the earth is almoft as hard as ftone, digging and hollowing this aparc- 

 ment by no fmall labour. This infed ha;s two teeth, ftrong and firm, 

 but not extremely hard : to foften that earth it is unable to pierce, ic 

 has a gummy liquor, which, emitted on the place, renders it more ea- 

 fily feparable, and the whole becomes a kind of foft pafte. If the ani- 

 mal's liquor is exhaufted, water from fome neighbouring flower or ftream 

 fupplies the deficiency. After much toil, a hole fome inches deep is 

 formed, at the bottom of which is a large cavity : to this what other in- 

 feft would venture, confidering the length and narrownefs of the defile ? 

 Here the folitary wafp lays its egg ; and the nafcent animal continues 

 above nine months, unattended and immured. The mother- wafp's next 

 care is to furnifh provifions to the young infed: when it leaves the ecrg:. 

 She procures little green worm^s, generally from eight to twelve : this 

 fupply laid in, (he clofes the mouth of the paflage, and dies, fatisfied 

 with having provided for her future progeny. The diminutive young 

 glutton, juft hatched, feafts on the living fpoil without any control, till 

 its (lock of worms is exhaufted, and the time of its transformation ap- 

 proaches; tnen fpinning a filken web, it continues fixed in its cell till 

 the fun calls it from its dark abode the enfuing fummer. 



3 G a Weft 



