318 HISTORY OF 



wants require. The pillars are very hard and compact, being 

 larger at each end than in the middle, not much unlike the 

 columns of a building. All the cells of the nest are only des- 

 tined for the reception of the young, being replete with neither 

 M'ax nor honey. 



Each cell is like that of the bee, hexagonal : but they are ot 

 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 the bee in this ; that among the 

 latter the working bees take the parental duties upon them, 

 whereas among the wasps the females alone are permitted to 

 feed their young, and to nurse their rising progeny. For this 

 purpose the female waits with great patience till the working- 

 wasps have brought in their provisions, which she takes from 

 them, and cuts into pieces. She then goes with great compo- 

 sure 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 eating, and begin to spin a very fine silk, fixing 

 their first end to the entrance of the cell ; then turning their 

 beads, 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 transforma- 

 tion ; 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 purpose 

 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 regale its young. 



