OF NATURAL HISTORY. 361 



with a fine filken cover, in the fame manner as the filk-worm 

 and other caterpillars fpin their cods. This operation is 

 completed in three or four hours, and the animal remains in 

 the nymph ftate nine or ten days, when, with its teeth, it 

 deftroys the external cover of the cell, and comes forth in 

 the form of a winged infect, which is either male, female, or 

 neuter, according to the nature of the egg from which it was 

 hatched. In a fliort time, the wafps newly transformed re- 

 ceive the food brought into the neft by the foragers in the 

 fields. Yv^hat is flill more curious, in the courfe of the iirft 

 day after their transformation, the young wafps have been 

 obferved going to the fields, bringing in provifions, and 

 diftributing them to the worms in the cells. A cell is no 

 fooner abandoned by a young wafp, than it is cleaned, trim- 

 med, and repaired by an old one, and rendered, in every ref- 

 pect, proper for the reception of another egg. 



As formerly mentioned, wafps of different fexes diiTer 

 greatly in fize. The animals know how to conftru6t cells 

 proportioned to the dimenfions of the fly that is to proceed 

 from the egg which the female depofits in them. The neu» 

 ters are fix times fmaller than the females, and their cells 

 are built nearly in the fame proportion. Cells are not only 

 adapted for the reception of neuters, males, and females^ 

 but it is remarkable that the cells of the neuters are never 

 intermixed with thofe of the males or females. A comb is 

 entirely occupied with fmall cells fitted for the reception of 

 neuter worms. But male and female cells are often found 

 in the fame comb. The males and females are of equal 

 length, and, of courfe, require ceils of an equal deepnefs. 

 But the cells of the males are narrower than thofe of the fe- 

 males, becaufe the bodies of the former are never fo thick 

 as thofe of the latter. 



This wonderful afl^emblage of combs, of the pillars which 

 fupport them., and of the external envelope, is an edifice 



