WASP COLONIZATION. 91 



ants, becomes fully equal to those of whose ruins she was the 

 survivor. Of a widowed princess, playing such a part, it 

 would be said that she was a pattern heroine: and we must 

 now advance the claims of a widowed Wasp to a title some- 

 what similar, for the performance of a like extraordinary 

 achievement. 



It is commonly known, we believe, that the race of Wasps, 

 in general, 



" Falls as the leaves do, and dies in October." 



Such, in fact, is the case with the numerous herd of working, 

 or, as we generally call them, thieving Wasps, with the males 

 (a quiet stay-at-home class with which we have little personal 

 acquaintance), and with a portion of the females ; but of the 

 latter, which are several times the size of the others, a few 

 winter survivors are always left in every nest. These (of 

 which our bulky visitant to the mouse-hole was one), after a 

 season of torpidity, awake in early spring ; when each taking 

 her own separate beat, chooses a favourable site for a new nest. 

 Of this she is the architect, and at this she works, wholly 

 unassisted, until the eggs, which she takes care to deposit in 

 its first cells, furnish her with assistants in the building and 

 peopling of her colony. 



From the female and the male come we now (last not least) 

 to what has been called the Wasp neuter, that correspondent 

 with the worker Bee and worker Ant, wherein the best 

 qualities of both sexes, the tenderness and patience of the one, 

 and the bravery and activity of the other, seem to meet on 

 neutral ground ; be it noted, however, that this neutral ground, 

 so rich in every quality but that of productiveness, is, in fact, 

 female. 



Bees as well as Wasps are sometimes robbers, and of a much 

 worse description, because they rob their brethren. It is not 

 unfrequent, we are told, for the inhabitants of a distressed hive 

 to turn marauders, under the name of Corsair-bees. These 



