Social Bees and Wasps 



covers these cells with an umbrella-shaped shelter to 

 protect them from moisture and keep them warm. Later 

 this shelter is made into a complete envelope for the cells, 

 but for a small opening on the lower surface a door for 

 the wasps to enter and leave their home. In each of her 

 cells the queen deposits a single egg and in about a week 

 the larvae hatch. The queen feeds them on insect food 

 which they are able to masticate in their relatively strong 

 jaws. They grow so rapidly that their mother perforce 

 must make constant additions to the length of their cells, 

 lest they outgrow their temporary homes. Within the 

 cell the grub spins a silken cocoon, from which it emerges 

 in about a month from the time of egg-laying as a perfect 

 wasp. Her first impulse on coming into the world is to 

 clean herself, and her toilet is performed with the greatest 

 care. She carries her brush and comb on her front legs, 

 so they are always at hand when she requires them. Her 

 toilet completed, she visits some of the larvae which are 

 almost ready to spin their cocoons and caresses their heads. 



Evidently pleased with such unwonted attention, the 

 larvae give up a minute drop of liquid which the young 

 wasp readily drinks. For the first two days she helps the 

 queen to feed the larvae, after that she leaves the nest and 

 becomes a forager of food or wood-pulp. With the arrival 

 of the first dozen or so workers the queen relinquishes 

 all her work, with the exception of egg-laying. The 

 workers enlarge the nest as the exigencies of the family 

 may dictate ; often it is necessary to make the burrow, 

 in which the nest is situated, more commodious. Then 

 the workers may be seen issuing in a living stream, each 

 one bearing a little pellet of earth in its mouth, a tiny con- 

 tribution towards the engineering feats of the community. 



Though man has copied the paper-making of the social 

 wasps, he has not yet gone so far as to emulate their 

 architecture, and it would be difficult to do so, for the 

 wasps build their houses from above downwards. We 

 could hardly build our attics before our basements. 



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