Wasps, Bees, and Ants 509 



strip or ribbon of paper, which only needed drying to be undistinguishable 

 from the rest of the sheet to which it had been attached. And then she gravely 

 retired into the nest again. 



"By this means of marking different wasps it was evident that each wasp 

 had not a place of her own to work at, but that all worked anywhere and 

 anyhow. And this whether they were engaged in adding to the structure 

 or in removing what had been built previously. So, a wasp which had been 

 collecting white fibers joined her quota to what had been built by a wasp 

 who had gathered materials of a darker color, giving a variegated appearance 

 to the work. Further, it seemed clear that only the young wasps built, 

 probably because they only had the power of secreting mucus in sufficient 

 quantity for working up the dry fibers into a pulp. This was inferred from 

 the generally larger size, and the smooth ends of the wings, of the wasps 

 which were examined while thus engaged. Wasps grow smaller as they 

 grow older, and the ends of their wings get tattered with advancing days. 



"By the conjoint labors of all these busy workers, here a little and there 

 a little, the nest grows. The work of one week may have to be removed 

 the next week, to make way for modern improvements and for the require- 

 ments of the growing city; and, as we have seen, it has nearly all to be done 

 twice over. But wasps work very hard, and the nest grows visibly day by 

 day. The little egg-shell in which it began is lost in the changes which the 

 top of the nest undergoes. The slight strap from which it hung is now quite 

 inadequate to sustain the daily increasing weight, and new points of attach- 

 ment are sought to projecting roots, or stones, or branches. Sometimes 

 a branch runs all through a nest, materially adding to the difficulty of its 

 capture. Or, failing these, the original point of support is strengthened 

 by layer upon layer of paper, rubbed smooth, and thickly coated with wasp- 

 gum, to preserve so vital a point from all accidents of wind and weather. 

 The regular arrangement of the upper part of the nest is much disturbed 

 in the course of these events, and the top of one nest comes to look very like 

 the top of another. But at the bottom, at the growing part of the nest, the 

 different architectural instincts of the several species are displayed quite 

 to the last. The number of layers of paper employed to form the nest-cover 

 varies with the species, with the season, and with the circumstances under 

 which the nest has been built. Sometimes the case is so thin that the comb 

 shows an edge through the wall, while sometimes it is composed of as many 

 as a dozen layers. But. however the thickness of the walls may vary, as a 

 rule so invariable as to have been adopted as a means of classification, the 

 combs of the nests of the Vespae have no connection with the outer case, 

 except at the top of the nest. The comb and the case are mutually inde- 

 pendent and separate from each other. 



