Translator s Note 



Henri Fabre's essays on Wasps will fill three 

 volumes in all, of which this is the first. The 

 others will be entitled The Mason-Wasps and 

 More Hunting Wasps. The former will include 

 the chapters on the Common or Social Wasp. 



The first seventeen chapters of the present 

 book appeared some years ago, wholly or in 

 part, in a version of vol. i. of the Souvenirs 

 Entomologiques prepared by the author of 

 Mademoiselle Mori for Messrs. Macmillan and 

 Co., by arrangement with whom I am now 

 permitted to retranslate and republish them for 

 the purpose of this collected and definite edition 

 of Fabre's entomological works. Of the re- 

 mainder, ' The Modern Theory of Instinct ' first 

 saw the light in the English Review, and ' An 

 Unknown Sense,' in an abbreviated form, in the 

 Daily Mail. 



It is a pleasure once more to express my 

 thanks to Miss Frances Rodwell, who, as usual, 



