100 FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



instinct to help them. Their aim is to get into the light, 

 and finding daylight in their transparent prison they think 

 their aim is accomplished. In spite of constant collisions 

 with the glass they spend themselves in vainly trying to 

 fly farther in the direction of the sunshine. There is nothing 

 in the past to teach them what to do. They keep blindly 

 to their familiar habits, and die. 



II 



SOME OF THEIR HABITS 



If we open the thick envelope of the nest we shall find, 

 inside, a number of combs, or layers of cells, lying one below 

 the other and fastened together by solid pillars. The number 

 of these layers varies. Towards the end of the season there 

 may be ten, or even more. The opening of the cells is on 

 the lower surface. In this strange world the young grow, 

 sleep, and receive their food head downwards. 



The various storeys, or layers of combs, are divided by 

 open spaces ; and between the outer envelope and the stack 

 of combs there are doorways through which every part can 

 be easily reached. There is a continual coming and going 

 of nurses, attending to the grubs in the cells. On one side 

 of the outer wrapper is the gate of the city, a modest unadorned 

 opening, lost among the thin scales of the envelope. Facing 

 it is the entrance to the tunnel that leads from the cavity to 

 the world at large. 



In a Wasp community there is a large number of Wasps 

 whose whole life is spent in work. It is their business to 

 enlarge the nest as the population grows ; and though they 

 have no grubs of their own, they nurse the grubs in the cells 

 with the greatest care and industry. Wishing to watch their 

 operations, and also to see what would take place at the 

 approach of winter, I placed under cover one October a few 

 fragments of a nest, containing a large number of eggs and 



