350 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. X. 



destroys one of them at that time, destroys an entire 

 colony, of which she would have been the founder. 

 They are more worthy of praise than the queen bee, for 

 our female wasp busies herself in founding the society 

 of which she is to become the head. She is, at first, 

 an insulated being, that has had the fortune to sur- 

 vive the rigours of winter : when, in the spring, she 

 lays the foundation of her future empire, she has not 

 a single worker at her disposal ; with her own hands 

 and teeth she often hollows out a cave, wherein she 

 may lay the first foundation of her city ; she must, her- 

 self, build the first houses, and produce from her own 

 womb then: first inhabitants ; these, also, she must 

 feed and educate, before they can assist her labours. 

 At length she receives the reward of her perseverance, 

 and, from being a solitary unconnected individual, in 

 the autumn is able to rival the queen of the hive in the 

 number of her children and subjects. The number of 

 cells in a vespiary for so are the nests termed vary 

 according to the species : in the common wasp they 

 usually amount to about 1 6,000, each of which con- 

 tains one individual, either in the egg, the larva, or the 

 chrysalis state : and as three generations are raised in 

 each of these cells every year, the number of inha- 

 bitants, making allowance for casualties, will amount, 

 at the least, to 30,000. Even at this time, notwith- 

 standing the number of her labourers, the queen mother 

 continues to labour ; and thus sets an example to her 

 subjects of diligence and industry. Her life, indeed, 

 seems to be peculiarly precious to her subjects ; for if 

 she perishes, by any accident, before the other females 

 are hatched, her subjects cease their labours, lose their 

 instincts, and die. The number of ordinary females in 

 a nest often amount to several hundreds ; they be- 

 come perfect insects at the same time as do the males, 

 that is, towards the end of summer, and are found 

 in abundance, as every one knows, during the autumnal 

 fruit season. They then pair ; but winter soon comes 

 on, and most of these females perish ; the few ,that 



