THE FIRST PAPER-MAKER 163 



been kindly permitted to photograph' from the 

 specimens at the Natural .History Museum (Nos. 

 5 and 6), exhibits this final stage of the compound 

 home. 



By the time the workers have become tolerably 

 numerous in the growing nest, the busy mother 

 and queen begins to relax her external efforts, and 

 confines herself more and more to the performance 

 of her internal and domestic duties. She no 

 longer goes out to make paper and collect food ; 

 she gives herself up, like the queen bee, exclusively 

 to the maternal business of egg-laying. You must 

 remember that she is still the only perfect female 

 in the wasp hive, and that every worker wasp 

 the home contains is her own daughter. She is 

 foundress, queen, and mother to that whole busy 

 community of 4000 or 5000 souls. The longer 

 the nest goes on, the greater is the number of 

 workers produced, and the faster does the queen 

 lay eggs in the new cells now built for her use by 

 her attentive daughters. These in turn fly abroad 

 everywhere in search of nectar, fruits, and meat, 

 or gather honey-dew from the green-flies, or catch 

 and sting to death other insects, or swoop down 

 upon and carry off fat, juicy spiders ; all of which 

 foodstuffs, save what they require for their own 

 subsistence, they take home to the nest to feed the 

 grubs, from which, in due time, will issue forth 

 more workers. It is a wonderful world of women 

 burghers. 



As long as summer lasts, our queen lays eggs 

 which produce nothing else than such neuter 



