SOCIAL ECONOMY. 251 
other bringing food for the young brood. As we 
have already closely examined all the details of the 
process of building, we need not dwell any longer on 
these now; but, while the wasps still have any of 
the interior open to view, we may turn our attention 
to other points of their domestic economy. And first 
of their food. 
Wasps’ food is of the most varied kind, they eat 
fragments of meat, the bodies of insects, fruit, gar- 
bage, anything, in short, from which nourishment 
can be extracted. But it is the nutritive fluid which 
is extracted from these various bodies that they 
consume, rather than the solid substance itself. It 
is true that fragments of the harder parts of insects 
are sometimes found in their castings, and generally 
form a large portion of the contents of the intestinal 
pouch of the larvee; still, as a rule, wasps live on 
fluid food. 
When a wasp appears with her crop full of fluid, 
she becomes immediately a centre of attraction. 
Two or three gather round her, and take up the fluid 
as she gradually lets it drop out on the upper surface 
of the comb. Then the larvee are visited in their 
cells, and take their food in the most sisterly way, 
from mouth to mouth, till the supply is exhausted, 
and the nurse is at liberty to go away and replenish 
her crop. The solid food which is brought in cannot 
be so easily distributed, but, however it is portioned 
out, there is never any quarrelling. Strong as the 
instinct is In wasps to snatch and hold their own 
against all the rest of the world, yet no feeling of 
resentment seems to be aroused by the loss of their 
prey. Once gone, whether to friend or foe, it is lost, 
