THE FIRST PAPER-MAKER 



165 



Last of all, as the really cold weather begins to 

 set in, the queen wasp lays some other eggs from 

 which a small brood of males is finally developed. 

 Nobody in the nest sets much store by these males : 

 they are necessary evils, no more, so the wasps put 

 up with them. It is humiliating to my sex, but I 



NO. 6. NESTS OF TREE-WASP, EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR. 



cannot avoid mentioning the fact, that the produc- 

 tion of males seems even to be a direct result of 

 chill and unfavourable conditions. The best food 

 and the biggest cells produce fertile queens ; the 

 second best food and smaller cells produce workers ; 

 finally, the enfeeblement due to approaching winter 



