COMMON WASPS 105 



nest, and thrown into the refuse-heap at the bottom of the 

 cave. The nurses, or workers, root them out of their cells 

 as violently as though they were strangers or dead bodies. 

 They tug at them savagely and tear them. Then the eggs 

 are ripped open and devoured. 



Before much longer the nurses themselves, the execu- 

 tioners, are languidly dragging what remains of their lives. 

 Day by day, with a curiosity mingled with emotion, I watch 

 the end of my insects. The workers die suddenly. They 

 come to the surface, slip down, fall on their backs and rise 

 no more, as if they were struck by lightning. They have 

 had their day ; they are slain by age, that merciless poison. 

 Even so does a piece of clockwork become motionless when 

 its mainspring has unwound its last spiral. 



The workers are old : but the mothers are the last to be 

 born into the nest, and have all the vigour of youth. And 

 so, when the winter sickness seizes them, they are capable of 

 a certain resistance. Those whose end is near are easily 

 distinguished from the others by the disorder of their appear- 

 ance. Their backs are dusty. While they are well they dust 

 themselves without ceasing, and their black-and-yellow coats 

 are kept perfectly glossy. Those who are ailing are careless 

 of cleanliness ; they stand motionless in the sun or wander 

 languidly about. They no longer brush their clothes. 



This indifference to dress is a bad sign. Two or three 

 days later the dusty female leaves the nest for the last time. 

 She goes outside, to enjoy yet a little of the sunlight ; pre- 

 sently she slides quietly to the ground and does not get up 

 again. She declines to die in her beloved paper home, where 

 the code of the Wasps ordains absolute cleanliness. The 

 dying Wasp performs her own funeral rites by dropping 

 herself into the pit at the bottom of the cavern. For reasons 

 of health these stoics refuse to die in the actual house, among 

 the combs. The last survivors retain this repugnance to 

 the very end. It is a law that never falls into disuse, how- 

 ever greatly reduced the population may be. 



