270 THE DIPLOPTERA. 



and the remaining combs are suspended from the top 

 by pillars in the manner already described. 



The whole of this complicated structure, which it 

 has been calculated may contain no less than 16,000 

 cells, is raised by the industrious Wasps in a single 

 summer, and what is most remarkable, the only inha- 

 bitants of the populous city which survive the winter 

 are a few fertile females, so that each of the extensive 

 colonies of Wasps, whose ingenious edifice has just 

 been described, originates in the spring from a single 

 individual. This female survivor selects or forms some 

 small cavity in which to lay the foundation of her fu- 

 ture realm ; by her own labour she builds a small comb, 

 in each cell of which she lays an egg, and afterwards 

 tends upon and feeds the larvse until their change into 

 the pupa state, and the Wasps proceeding from these 

 pupae are always abortive females or workers. The 

 foundress of the colony is now relieved of a great part 

 of her labours \ her new assistants devote themselves 

 with ardour to the task of increasing the size of the nest 

 and tending upon the larvse proceeding from the newly 

 laid eggs ; the number of these laborious artisans gra- 

 dually increases, and the work of course goes rapidly 

 forward. The later broods appear to consist both of 

 females and neuters, and these all assist in the business 

 of the nest; but the males, which do not appear till quite 

 the end of the season, are, like the males of most social 

 insects, idle members of the community. The Wasps 

 which we see abroad in such numbers in the summer 

 months^ and which not unfrequently pay us an un- 

 welcome visit in our houses, are either engaged in 

 the search after provisions for the larvse, upon which 

 these tender, although irritable nurses lavish their 

 attention in the most affectionate manner, or, in the 



