BEES, 113 



are very multifanous; some go in search of provisions, in the transport of 

 which they mutually assist each other; some feed the young, take them out 

 on fine days to enjoy the sunshine, and watch over them with the tenderest 

 care, exhibiting in their defence a degree of courage well calculated to excite 



108. WORKING AM AND PORTION OF ANT-HILL. 



admiration. When their habitations are by any means injured or destroyed, 

 no time is lost in useless despair, one spirit animates each individual, simul- 

 taneously they set to work to repair their misfortune ; they labour unceasingly, 

 nothing damps their ardour or abates their industry until, as if by magic, their 

 habitation rises to its former height and beauty, and all traces of ruin have 

 disappeared. 



The Wasps ( Vespd) likewise live in society. Only the females found new 

 colonies. In the spring they lay their eggs, from which are derived individuals 

 called workers, who assist their common mother. To construct their nest or 

 vespiary, these insects, by the aid of their mandibles, detach pieces of bark or 

 old wood, which they reduce to a sort of paper-like paste. Of this they form 

 the combs : these are generally horizontal, suspended by pedicles, and com- 

 posed of hexagonal cells, serving for the lodgment of the larvae and pupae. 

 The combs are ranged in stages parallel to each other at regular distances, 

 and are joined together at intervals by little columns that support them. The 

 whole is built sometimes in the open air, sometimes in the hollow of a tree, and 

 some are enclosed in a common envelope, according to the species. It is only 

 in the beginning of autumn that male wasps are found in the vespiary; the 

 young females make their appearance at the same time. About the month 

 of N ovember, the young wasps that have not completed their last metamor- 

 phosis are put to death, and thrown out of the cells by the neuters, who, as 

 well as the males, perish when cold weather arrives ; so that the preserva- 

 tion of the species is confided exclusively to the few females who resist the 

 inclemency of the winter and survive till spring. 



The Bees (Apis}. A society of bees consists of individuals of three dif- 

 ferent kinds ; namely, the " workers," or " labourers," the drones, and one soli- 

 tary fertile female called the queen-bee. The workers are very numerous : in 

 a well-populated hive their average number is from fifteen to twenty thousand, 



8 



