268 THE DIPLOPTERA. 



food sufficient for the wants of the larva. This con- 

 sists of about a dozen little green grubs (the nature 

 of which does not seem to be ascertained), each of 

 which the careful mother binds up into the form of a 

 ring, and then packs the whole closely side by side 

 in her burrows, filling up the mouth with the ma- 

 terials of the tube above mentioned, and pressing all 

 down so tightly, that the unfortunate victims have no 

 chance of making a last struggle for their lives. It 

 is remarkable that this Wasp appears to have so 

 accurate an appreciation of size, that when the grubs 

 with which she stores her nest are rather larger than 

 usual, she diminishes their number in proportion, and 

 thus from eight to twelve or thirteen may be found 

 in different nests. 



But these labours are as nothing compared with 

 those undertaken by the Social Wasps, in which, as 

 in the Ants, we meet with three different forms of 

 individuals, namely, males, perfect females, and im- 

 perfect females or neuters. The nest of the common 

 Wasp (Vespa vulgaris), an insect too well known to 

 need description, is constructed in a hole in the 

 ground, usually in a hedge-bank, and frequently 

 under the roots of trees ; the cavity for its reception 

 is either one which the Wasps find ready-formed, or 

 is hollowed out in the earth by their own labour. 

 The nest itself, when complete, is of an oval form, 

 and often as much as sixteen or eighteen inches in 

 its longest diameter ; its surface is composed of fifteen 

 or sixteen layers of a coarse paper- like substance, 

 with a small space between each, forming an admi- 

 rable protection against wet, which, even if it should 

 soak through some of the outer layers, would cer- 

 tainly be stopped before reaching the interior of the 



