210 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



birds and quadrupeds we have instances of affection as strong perhaps 

 while it lasts ; but how much shorter the period during which it is exerted! 

 In a month or two the young of the former require no further attention ; 

 and if in a state of nature some of the latter give suck to their offspring 

 for a longer period, it is on their parts without effort or labour ; and in 

 both cases the time given up to their young forms a very small part of the 

 life of the animal. But the little insects in question not only spend a greater 

 portion of time in the education of their progeny, but devote even 

 the whole of their existence, from their birth to their death, to this one 

 occupation ! 



The common hive-bee and the wasp in their attention to their young 

 exhibit the same general features. Both build for their reception hexa- 

 gonal cells, differing in size according to the future sex of the included 

 grubs, which as soon as hatched they both feed and assiduously tend 

 until their transformation into pupae. There are peculiarities, however, in 

 their modes of procedure, which require a distinct notice. 



The economy of a nest of wasps differs from that of bees, in that the 

 eggs are laid not by a single mother or queen, but by several ; and that 

 these mothers take the same care as the workers in feeding the young 

 grubs : indeed those first hatched are fed entirely by the female which 

 produced them, the solitary founder of the colony. The sole survivor 

 probably of a last year's swarm of many thousands, this female, as soon as 

 revived by the warmth of spring, proceeds to construct a few cells, and 

 deposits in them the eggs of working wasps. The eggs are covered with 

 a gluten, which fixes them so strongly against the sides of the cells, that 

 it is not easy to separate them unbroken. These eggs seem to require 

 care from the time they are laid, for the wasps many times in a day put 

 their heads into the cells which contain them. When they are hatched, 

 it is amusing to witness the activity with which the female runs from cell 

 to cell, putting her head into those in which the grubs are very young, 

 while those that are more advanced in age thrust their heads out of their 

 cells, and by little movements seem to be asking for their food. As soon 

 as they receive their portion, they draw them back and remain quiet. 

 These she feeds until they become pupae ; and within twelve hours after 

 being excluded in their perfect state, they eagerly set to work in con- 

 structing fresh cells, and in lightening the burden of their parent by as- 

 sisting her in feeding the grubs of other workers and females which are by 

 this time born. In a few weeks the society will have received an ac- 

 cession of several hundred workers and many females, which without dis- 

 tinction apply themselves to provide food for the growing grubs, now 

 become exceedingly numerous. With this object in view, as they collect 

 little or no honey from flowers, they are constantly engaged in predatory 

 expeditions. One party will attack a hive of bees, a grocer's sugar hogs- 

 head, or other saccharine repository ; or, if these fail, the juice of a ripe 

 peach or pear. You will be less indignant than formerly at these auda- 

 cious robbers now you know that self is little considered in their attacks, 

 and that your ravaged fruit has supplied an exquisite banquet to the 

 most tender grubs of the nest, into whose extended mouths the successful 

 marauders, running with astonishing agility from one cell to another, dis- 

 gorge successively a small portion of their booty in the same way that a 

 bird supplies her young. 1 Another party is charged with providing more 



1 See "VVillougliby in Rai. Hist. Ins. 251. and Reaum. 



