COMMON WASPS 101 



grubs, with about a hundred workers to take care of 

 them. 



To make my inspection easier I separated the combs 

 and placed them side by side, with the openings of the cells 

 turned upwards. This arrangement, the reverse of the usual 

 position, did not seem to annoy my prisoners, who soon 

 recovered from the disturbance and set to work as if nothing 

 had happened. In case they should wish to build I gave 

 them a slip of soft wood ; and I fed them with honey. The 

 underground cave in which the nest hangs out of doors was 

 represented by a large earthen pan under a wire-gauze cover. 

 A removable cardboard dome provided darkness for the 

 Wasps, and when removed light for me. 



The Wasps' work went on as if it had never been inter- 

 rupted. The worker- Wasps attended to the grubs and the 

 building at the same time. They began to raise a wall round 

 the most thickly populated combs ; and it seemed as though 

 they might intend to build a new envelope, to replace the 

 one ruined by my spade. But they were not repairing ; 

 they were simply carrying on the work from the point at 

 which I interrupted it. Over about a third of the comb they 

 made an arched roof of paper scales, which would have been 

 joined to the envelope of the nest if it had been intact. The 

 tent they made sheltered only a small part of the disk of cells. 



As for the wood I provided for them, they did not touch 

 it. To this raw material, which would have been trouble- 

 some to work, they preferred the old cells that were no longer 

 in use. In these the fibres were already prepared ; and, 

 with a little saliva and a little grinding in their mandibles, 

 they turned them into pulp of the highest quality. The 

 uninhabited cells were nibbled into pieces, and out of the ruins 

 a sort of canopy was built. New cells could be made in 

 the same way if necessary. 



Even more interesting than this roofing-work is the feed- 

 ing of the grubs. One could never weary of the sight of 

 the rough fighters turned into tender nurses. The barracks 



