COMMON WASPS 97 



A space of a hand's-breadth is always left open between 

 the paper nest and the sides of the underground vault. This 

 space is the wide street along which the builders move un- 

 hindered at their continual task of enlarging and strengthen- 

 ing the nest, and the passage that leads to the outer world 

 opens into it. Underneath the nest is a much larger unoccupied 

 space, rounded into a big basin, so that the wrapper of the 

 nest can be enlarged as fresh cells are added. This cavity 

 also serves as a dust-bin for refuse. 



The cavity was dug by the Wasps themselves. Of that 

 there is no doubt ; for holes so large and so regular do not 

 exist ready-made. The original foundress of the nest may 

 have seized on some cavity made by a Mole, to help her at 

 the beginning ; but the greater part of the enormous vault 

 was the work of the Wasps. Yet there is not a scrap of 

 rubbish outside the entrance. Where is the mass of earth 

 that has been removed ? 



It has been spread over such a large surface of ground 

 that it is unnoticed. Thousands and thousands of Wasps 

 work at digging the cellar, and enlarging it as that becomes 

 necessary. They fly up to the outer world, each carrying a 

 particle of earth, which they drop on the ground at some 

 distance from the nest, in all directions. Being scattered in 

 this way the earth leaves no visible trace. 



The Wasp's nest is made of a thin, flexible material like 

 brown paper, formed of particles of wood. It is streaked 

 with bands, of which the colour varies according to the wood 

 used. If it were made in a single continuous sheet it would 

 give little protection against the cold. But the Common 

 Wasp, like the balloon-maker, knows that heat may be pre- 

 served by means of a cushion of air contained by several 

 wrappers. So she makes her paper-pulp into broad scales, 

 which overlap loosely and are laid on in numerous layers. 

 The whole forms a coarse blanket, thick and spongy in texture 

 and well filled with stagnant air. The temperature under 

 this shelter must be truly tropical in hot weather. 



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