222 WASP CHARACTERISTICS. 



of honey) for the genus Vespa over the genus Apis; but there 

 are grounds for it which remain to be set forth. 



We have seen, already, the vast superiority of the mother- 

 foundress of a Wasp community over that lump of pampered 

 productiveness called the Queen Bee; and the difference in 

 favor of Wasps is yet more marked in the development of 

 masculine character. The very name of the male or Drone Bee, 

 has passed into a proverb expressive of idleness, luxury, and in- 

 significance, living on others' labour qualities, in the Insect, so 

 burthensome, even to his own kind, that he is tolerated only 

 as a necessary evil, and got rid of as soon as possible ; whereas, 

 the male Wasp, although it comes not into his province either 

 to build at home or to forage abroad, is a good-natured, active 

 fellow, disposed to do all he can, and to make himself generally 

 useful. He is described by Huber as sweeping the terraces 

 and passages of the nest, removing thence all things that 

 offend, and even as undertaking to dispose decently of the 

 dead, a task wherein he calls in the aid of companions when 

 his own strength proves inadequate to its performance. Ac- 

 cording to his merit and his usefulness he is estimated by his fel- 

 low-citizens, for he lives with them as long as the season and his 

 constitution will permit, and the cruel autumn massacre, which 

 defiles the Bee-hive, is in the Wasp-nest a thing unknown. 



From the female and the male, come we now (last not least) 

 to what has been called the Wasp neuter, that correspondent 

 with the worker Bee and worker Ant, wherein the best 



