622 Nature and Habits of the common Was]). 



worthy farther notice than destroying them. I know of no one, 

 except Reaumur, who has kept wasps in glass hives to ascertain 

 their habits. I have done the same thing, and found their habits 

 are, in some respects, similar to those of the honey-bee, but in 

 others widely different, as the following will show. 



During this season, I suspended in the top of a bell-glass a 

 wasp's comb containing brood, eggs, and six working wasps, 

 but no queen. The headless colony had their liberty, fed the 

 grubs, but added nothing to the nest, neither made any attempts 

 to create a queen, as it is said bees do when put to such a test. 

 To ascertain the latter was the grand object I had in view. The 

 wasps became weak, and I destroyed them. This agrees with 

 what a writer says : — " If, by any accident, before the other 

 female wasps are hatched, the queen mother perishes, the neuters 

 cease their labours, lose their instinct, and die." 



I furnished the bell-glass with another comb similar to the 

 other, with the mouths of the cells upwards, being the reverse of 

 the usual way, which is downwards ; likewise six workers and a 

 queen wasp. I confined them three days, and gave them food; 

 they fed the grubs with great care, but took little interest about 

 their nest until they had their liberty. I put another queen into 

 the nest, which was soon cast out dead. I repeated this with 

 another queen, and instantly the rightful queen destroyed her. 

 This agrees with the habits of queens in a beehive. 



As the bell-glass was tight and in darkness, one might have 

 thought that the inmates would have dispensed with the paper 

 covering to their cells ; but no, the comb was soon covered over, 

 except the entrance below, which shows their instinct cannot 

 be altered. In this respect, it surpasses that of the hive-bees. 

 Though the latter block up all little crannies in the hive, they 

 never make the least attempt to protect their combs from the 

 weather, even in cases where it is wanted, for instance, when they 

 construct their cells in the open air. I examined the nest, and 

 found the position of the cells was altered, from their mouths 

 being upwards to downwards. This constant rule of structure 

 by wasps is easily accounted for ; like the honey-bees they begin 

 their nest at the top of the cavity; do not range their combs 

 vertically as they do, but horizontally; and form many distinct 

 parallelograms, some say sixteen, but eight or twelve comes 

 nearer the mark. The cells are hexagonal, and formed of the 

 same kind of water-proof paper that covers them, not divided by 

 double partition walls, as Dr. Barclay says. Probably he was 

 led into error by examining cells that had contained brood, 

 where a film, or rather a part of the cocoon, is left by the insect. 

 The cells of the wasp that builds on a branch show this the 

 most; indeed, so much so, that they appear round. Wasps' 

 combs are merely for rearing the brood; they are not arranged 



