THE WASP. 



Attention of the female to her young. 



is white, transparent, and of an oblong shape. 

 From this egg proceeds the insect in its worm- 

 state, which the females are very attentive to 

 supply with the provisions brought home for 

 that purpose by the working wasps. They feed 

 them as birds feed their young, by giving them 

 from time to time a mouthful of food. These 

 worms continue to grow till they entirely fill up 

 the cell, when they cease to eat and begin to 

 spin a very fine silk web with which they close 

 the mouth of their habitation. After they have 

 undergone the usual mode of transformation, the 

 perfect animal breaks forth from its confinement, 

 insensibly acquiring the colour and shape of its 

 parent. 



During the summer, the mother wasp conti- 

 nues to lay till she has produced fifteen or six- 

 teen thousand neuters or mules, and about five 

 or six hundred males and females; the common- 

 wealth daily increases in numbers and enjoys 

 tranquillity. But as the sun withdraws they lose 

 their courage and activity. In proportion as the 

 cold increases they become more domestic; 

 rarely leaving the nest, they venture but a short 

 distance from home, flutter about during the 

 noon- day heats, and soon return chilled and feeble. 

 Towards the month of October, provisions grow 

 scarce and a new scene ensues. This hitherto 

 amicable tribe is fired with mutual rage, and the 

 whole edifice presents one scene of indiscrimi- 





