OF NATURAL HISTORY. 357 



This wonderful affemblage of combs, of the pillars which fupport 

 them, and ot the external envelope, is an edifice which requires fe- 

 veral months labour, and ferves the animals one year only. This 

 habitation, fo populous in fummer, is almoft deferted in winter, and 

 abandoned entirely in fpring ; for, in this laft feafon, not a fingle 

 wafp is to be found in a neft of the preceding year. It is worthy 

 of remark, that the firft combs of a neft are always accommodated 

 for the reception of the neuter or working wafps. The city, of 

 which the foundation has juft been laid, requires a number of work^ 

 men. The neuter or working wafps are accordingly firft produced. 

 A cell is no fooner half completed than an egg of a neuter is depo- 

 fited in it by the female. Of fourteen or fifteen combs inclofed in 

 a common cover, the four laft only are deftined for the reception of 

 males and females. Hence it uniformly happens, that, before the 

 males and females are capable of taking flight, every wafp's neft is 

 peopled with feveral thoufand neuters or workers. But the neuters, 

 who are firft produced, are likewife the firft that perifti ; for not one 

 of them furvives the termination even of a mild winter. It was 

 remarked by the ancient naturalifts, that fome wafps lived one year 

 only, and others two. To the former Ariftotle gives the appellation 

 of operarii, which are our workers or neuters, and to the latter 

 matrices, which are our females. 



The femule Wafps are ftronger, and fupport the rigours of win- 

 ter better than the males or neuters. Before the end of winter, 

 however, feveral hundred females die, and not above ten or a dozen 

 in each neft furvive that feafon. Thefe few females are deftined for 

 the continuation of the fpecies. Each of them becomes the foun- 

 der of a new republic. When a queen-bee departs from a hive in 

 order to eftablifli a new one, ftie is always accompanied with feveral 

 thoufand induftrious labourers, ready to perform every neceftary 

 operation. But the female wafp has not the aid of a fingle labour- 

 I er •, 



