FORMICIDJE VESPID.E, OR WASPS. *167 



nest as soon as they have acquired their wings ; and go 

 forth together into the air. The males soon die, without re- 

 entering their former abode. Of the females some return, and 

 deposit their eggs in the original nest ; whilst others go to a 

 distance, and become the foundresses of new colonies : they, too, 

 lose their wings at this period, sometimes stripping them off 

 with their own feet, in other instances being deprived of them 

 by the neuters. These last not only construct the nest, but 

 most carefully tend the young grubs ; supplying them with 

 food, moving them on fine days to the outer surface of the 

 nest to give them heat, and carrying them back again at the 

 approach of night or bad weather, and defending them when 

 attacked by enemies. In most cases the species consist only of 

 three kinds of individuals, males, females, and neuters ; but in a 

 good many species, some of the latter are larger and rather dif- 

 ferently formed from the rest, and appear to be the soldiers of 

 the community ; not only defending their own nests against 

 attacks, but actually making war upon the nests of other species 

 of Ants (as will be hereafter detailed), and keeping their cap- 

 tives in slavery. Ants are well known to be extremely fond of 

 saccharine matters ; and they seem greatly to relish the fluid 

 which exudes from the bodies of Aphides and Coccida3 ( 785, 

 786). Some species even collect Aphides into flocks, and keep 

 them, as it were, in pastures ; which they connect with their 

 nests by means of galleries, built along the stems and branches 

 of trees ; and they protect the eggs of these insects in their own 

 nests, especially in bad seasons. 



761. The family of VESPID^E, or Wasps, is distinguished from 

 the other Hymenoptera, by the wings being folded, when at rest, 

 throughout their entire length. In general these insects are 

 social ; the communities, however, being small. In such cases, 

 there are neuters, or individuals of neither sex ; but these are 

 not destitute of wings. There are also some solitary Wasps 

 (whose habits resemble those of the Fossores, whilst their 

 general structure is more conformable to that of the Social 

 Wasps), among which no neuters exist. The best-known of 

 the Social Wasps, such as the Common Wasp of this country, 



