INSECTA — WASP. 845 



prodigious magnitude as to darken the air like a thick cloud, and to cover 

 the ground where they settled to a considerable extent. 



THE W A SPi 



Is well known to be a winged insect with a sting ; to be longer in propor- 

 tion to its bulk than the bee ; to be marked with bright yellow circles round 

 its body ; and to be the most swift and active insect of all the fly kind. ' On 

 each side of the mouth, this animal is furnished with a long tooth, notched 

 like a saw, and with these it is enabled to cut any substance, not omitting 

 meat itself, and to carry it lo its nest. Wasps live like bees in community, 

 and sometimes ten or twelve thousand are found inhabiting a single nest. 



Of all insects, the wasp is the most fierce, voracious, and most dangerous, 

 when enraged. They are seen wherever flesh is cutting up, gorging them- 

 selves with the spoil, and then flying to their nests with their reeking prey. 

 They make war also on every other fly, and the spider himself dreads their 

 approaches. 



Every community among bees is composed of females or queens, drones 

 or males, and neutral or working bees. Wasps have similar occupations; 

 the two first are for propagating the species, the last for nursing, defending, 

 and supporting the rising progeny. Among bees, however, there is seldom 

 above a queen or two in a hive ; among wasps there are above two or three 

 hundred. 



As soon as the summer begins to invigorate the insect tribes, the wasps 

 are the most of the number, and are diligently employed either in providing 

 provisions for their nest, if already made, or in making one, if the former 

 habitation be too small to receive the increasing community. The nest is 

 one of the most curious objects in natural history, and contrived almost as 

 artificially as that of the bees themselves. Their principal care is to seek 

 out a hole that has been begun by some other animal, a field mouse, a rat, 

 or a mole, to build their nests in. They sometimes build upon the plain, 

 where they are sure of the dryness of their situation ; but most commonly 



' Vespa vulgaris, List. 



7]* 



