HYMENOPTEEA. 377 



The exterior envelope of the nest is made with leaves of a sort 

 of greyish, very gummy paper, which is applied layer by layer. 

 Reaumur has given a very detailed account of the way in which 

 these insects construct their nests.* They collect fibres of 

 wood, which are their raw material ; make them into a sort of 

 coarse lint, which they reduce to balls, and carry between their 

 legs to the nest. These balls are next stuck on to the work 

 already begun. Then the insect stretches them out, flattens them, 

 and draws them into thin layers, as a bricklayer spreads mortar 

 with his trowel. The wasp works with extreme quickness, always 

 backwards, so that it may have incessantly before its eyes the 

 work it has done ; the movement of its mandibles is even quicker 

 than that of its legs. 



Towards the end of summer the nest may contain three thousand 

 workers, and as many females, who live together in perfect har- 

 mony. The number of males equals that of the females. A 

 female weighs, by herself, as. much as three males, or six workers. 

 With the exception of those which are occupied in building 

 and in taking care of the eggs, all the wasps go out hunting 

 during the day. They are carnivorous, and may be seen attack- 

 ing other insects, which they tear to pieces after having killed, 

 so as to carry the bits to their nests, where thousands of mouths 

 are clamouring for their food. The wasp pays great attention to 

 the vines. It penetrates also into the interior of our houses, and 

 infests the butchers* shops ; but this the butchers do not much 

 mind, for the wasp drives away the flies, which would lay their 

 eggs on the meat, and thus contribute to its corruption. 



As the winter approaches, the wasps go out less and less, and 

 very soon cease to do so at all. The greater number then die, 

 huddled up in their nest. A few females only, as we have said, 

 get through the cold season. They sleep with their wings and 

 legs folded up, which gives them the appearance of chrysalides. 

 They can nevertheless sting in this state, as M. Guerin-Meneville 

 found out to his cost. The spring wakes them up, and they then 

 found new colonies. "It is at this season," says M. Maurice 

 Girard, in his book on the Metamorphoses of Insects, " that, with 

 a little trouble, it would be easy to diminish in a very perceptible 



* " Memoires," tome vi., p. 177. 



