SOCIAL ECONOMY. 239 © 
to its full dimensions ; it was all there, like the bones 
in a Chinese lady’s foot, but just as useless for all its 
proper purposes. The wasps soon recovered their 
warm bath and the affectionate manipulation which 
was meant to make good specimens of them. The 
sun brought them out in their true colours—temper 
and all—and dried off the mealy and sodden appear- 
ance of their bodies; but the wings remained hope- 
lessly crippled, and they were never to be anything 
more than those useless, dangerous creatures, crawl- 
ing wasps. 
In the history of the entire nest we have already 
traced most of the history of the individual wasps, 
living as they do entirely for the community. The 
new-born insect has but to dry and harden her skin, 
to rest and gather strength in her newly-acquired 
limbs, and then, to common eyes, she is lost in the 
swarm. No one, however, can watch animals long 
without having something to tell about them, with- 
out seeing something by which one wasp differs 
from another, as one man differs from another, in 
the doings of ordinary life. The fear is lest this 
anecdotal natural history should degenerate into 
twaddle. I trust to avoid this stumbling-block when. 
I come to consider this part of the subject in its 
proper turn. Just now, I would trace the successive 
phases of their social, rather than of their individual 
existence. 
The life of a wasp is by no means monotonous ; 
even in her cradle her future character is foreshadowed 
by the sharp mandibles with which the larva is sup- 
plied, and the courage with which she ventures on 
