248 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
the sexes, which determines the division of the 
swarm, and presides over all the internal economy of 
the hive. But with regard to the queen- or mother- 
wasp, the story is told in a few words, and without 
any mystery. Let me recapitulate, as briefly as 
possible, from a physiological point of view, the 
history of a wasp’s nest :— . 
In the height of the summer, when the swarm is 
strong and food is plentiful, when in short, so to say, 
the whole concern is thriving, the well fed larvee 
develop into females, full, large, and overflowmg 
with fat. There are all gradations of size, from the 
large fat female to the smallest worker, to be found 
im the swarm. All, even the smallest, may perhaps 
have distinct ovaries, with eggs in them, capable of 
being displayed by a lucky dissection. But the larger 
the wasp, the larger and better developed, as the rule, 
are the female organs, in all their details. In the 
largest wasps, which are to be the queens of another 
year, the ovaries differ to all appearance in nothing 
but their size from those of the larger worker wasps. 
At this season of the year the bulk of their abdomen 
is not made up of eggs, but of fat, which has its 
purpose in supporting life through the winter, till 
such time as the ovaries, with their increased size, 
shall assume their active functions. When there are 
plenty of wasps to build, with abundance of the 
best food, and plenty of wasps to bring it in, the 
larve are fed up to the highest point, the cells are 
built to suit the dimensions of the luxurious thriving 
grubs, and a brood results, which are fat, well deve- 
loped, perfect in all their organs, and only needing 
impregnation to enable them to reproduce their 
