The Mason-Wasps 



of the large cells, which form the cradles of 

 the sexed grubs. With the additional ma- 

 terial brought from without, the demolished 

 cells have served for building new and big- 

 ger cells; they have also perhaps provided 

 the wherewithal for a few more scales to 

 the outer wrapper. Sparing of her time, 

 the Wasp does not trouble to exploit distant 

 sources when she has available materials in 

 the house. She knows as well as we do how 

 to make old things into new. 



In a complete nest the total number of 

 cells amounts to thousands. Here, for ex- 

 ample, are the statistics of one of my speci- 

 mens. The combs are numbered in the or- 

 der of seniority: the oldest and therefore the 

 topmost in the stack is no. i ; the most recent 

 and therefore the undermost is no. 10. 



258 



