355 THE PHILOSOPHY 



to be metamorphofed into a nymph. It then refufes all nourifh- 

 ment, and ceafes to have any connection with the wafps in the neft. 

 It fhuls up the mouth of its cell with a fine filken cover, in the fame 

 manner as the filk-worm and other caterpillars fpin their cods. This 

 operation is completed in three or four hours, and the animal re- 

 mains in the nymph ftale nine or ten days, when, with its teeth, it 

 deftroys the external cover of the cell, and comes forth in the form 

 of a winged infeft, which is either male, female, or neuter, accor- 

 ding to the nature of the egg from which it was hatched. In a 

 fhort time, the wafps newly transformed receive the food brought 

 into the neft by the foragers in the fields. What is ftill more curi- 

 ous, in the courfe of the firft day after their transformation, the 

 young wafps have been obfeived going to the fields, bringing in 

 provifions, and diftributing them to the worms in the cells. A cell 

 is no fooner abandoned by a young wafp, than it is cleaned, trim- 

 med, and repaired by an old one, and rendered, In every refpeft, 

 proper for the reception of another egg. 



As formerly mentioned, wafps of different fexes differ greatly in 

 fize. The animals know how to conftrudl: cells proportioned to the 

 dimenfions. of the fly that is to proceed from the egg which the fe- 

 male depofits in them. The neuters are fix times fmaller than the 

 females, and their cells are built nearly in the fame proportion. Cells 

 are not only adapted for the reception of neuters, males, and fe- 

 males, but it is remarkable that the cells of the neuters are never 

 intermixed with thofe of the males or females. A comb Is entirely 

 occupied with fmall cells fitted for the reception of neuter worms. 

 But male and female cells are often found In the fame comb. The 

 males and females are of equal length, and, of courfe, require cells 

 of an equal deepnefs. But the cells of the males are narrower than 

 thofe of the females, becaufe the bodies of the former are never fo 

 thick as thofe of the latter.. 



This 



