WASPS AND BEES 87 



of the humble-bees, disintegrates and disappears, 

 while the hive of the honey-bee persists through- 

 out the winter, shorn only of its drones, which 

 are usually done to death by the workers. Two 

 categories, the queen and the workers, live 

 through the winter in the honey-bee colonies, 

 inert and dormant it may be, but yet alive and 

 ready to resume activities when spring arrives. 

 The hive also remains, the comb is not destroyed, 

 and after a little spring-cleaning will be ready 

 for use again when next needed. 



But with the wasps' nest things are far other- 

 wise. As the autumn approaches and the cold 

 weather comes on the young queens which have 

 previously been fertilised by the drones retire 

 from the world and hide away in moss or under a 

 thatched roof or in some corner of a shed. Here 

 they seize with their jaws some fragment of straw 

 or bit of rag and, hanging on almost entirely 

 by the jaws, wrap their wings around them and 

 enter on their winter sleep. 



Meanwhile the wasps' nest has been rapidly 

 deteriorating. The activities of the workers fall 

 off, the drones are slain or cease to return to the 

 nest. The workers sustain life for a few more 

 days by devouring the remaining larvae and pupae. 



