Social Bees and Wasps 



activities in detail. Our common wasps and hornets 

 are all social insects, and their communities, like those of 

 the bumble-bees, come to an end with the approach of 

 autumn. There is one outstanding point of interest 

 about the social wasps : they are the original paper-makers, 

 from which man himself has not been ashamed to copy. 

 Nearly all these insects construct their combs and nests 

 of paper, not coarse imitation stuff, but paper made from 

 real wood-pulp. In fact a South American wasp goes 

 a step further and makes its nest of thick pasteboard, 

 with a covering of paper so fine in texture that it may 

 easily be written upon with pen and ink. 



The insects prepare their wood-pulp by scraping the 

 wood fibres from old weather-beaten fences, etc. A 

 careful examination of such places, in the summer-time, 

 will reveal faint scratches, as though made by one's finger- 

 nail ; these are the marks left by the jaws of the wasps. 

 They chew up the wood with saliva till it is in a fit state 

 for the construction of their nests. As in the case of the 

 bumble-bees, a mated queen, which has survived the 

 winter, founds the colony. These hibernating queens 

 may often be found on lace curtains and similar situa- 

 tions, suspended by their jaws, for their feet are rarely 

 used as supports in this torpid state. 



The cells composing the comb are six-sided, like those 

 of the honey-bee ; but they are made of paper instead of 

 wax, for no wasp possesses the wax plates of the honey- 

 bee ; the cells also are in a single instead of a double 

 layer. In most cases the cells are vertical, a position 

 which one might consider dangerous for the young grub. 

 Every provision, however, is made against its falling out. 

 When young it is glued to the cell ; as it grows older it 

 becomes so plump that it is wedged tightly between the 

 encircling cell walls. 



The queen herself constructs the first cells of the nest, 

 and her work may always be distinguished by the finer 

 texture of the material used in its construction. She 



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