OF NATURAL HISTORY. 357 



iars are comnofeJ of the fame kind of paper as the reft of 

 the neii. To allow the wafps entries into the void fpaces, 

 roads are left between the combs and the external envelope 



or cover^g. 



Having given a general Idea of this curious edifice, it is 

 next natural to inquire how the wafps build, and how they 

 employ themfelves in their abodes. But, as all thefe myfte- 

 ries are performed under the earth, it required much indus- 

 try and attention to difcover them. By the ingenuity and 

 perfeverance of M. de Reaumur, however, we are enabled 

 to explain fome parts of their internal oeconomy and man- 

 ners. This indefatigable naturalift contrived to make wafps, 

 like the honey-bees, lodge and work in glafs- hives. In this 

 operation he was greatly afhfted by the ardent afFeclion 

 which thefe animals have to their offspring ; for he found,, 

 that, though the nefi: was cut in different directions, and 

 though it was expofed to the light, the wafps never deferted 

 it, nor relaxed in their attention to their young. When 

 placed in a glafs-hive, they are perfectly peaceable, and nev- 

 er attack the obferver, if he calmly contemplates their ope- 

 rations -, for, naturally, they do not fling, unlefs they are 

 irritated. 



Immediately after a wafp's nefl has been tranfported from 

 its natural fituation, and covered with a glafs-hive, the firft 

 operation of the infedls is to repair the injuries it has fuffered. 

 With wonderful activity they carry off all the earth and 

 foreign bodies that may have accidentally been conveyed in- 

 to the hive. Some of them occupy themfelves fixing the 

 neft to the top and fides of the hive by pillars of paper fimi- 

 lar to thofe which fupport the different ftories or ftrata of 

 combs ; others repair the breaches it has fuftained ; and 

 others fortify it by augmenting confiderably the thicknefs of 

 its external cover. This external envelope is an operation 

 peculiar to wafps. Its conftru6lion requires great labour ; 



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