302 THE AVASPS. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



VARIOUS SPECIES OF WASPS. 



A MONG the many very distinct species of wasps, the 

 J\_ Polistes gallica, or the French wasp, deserves special 

 mention. It is not peculiar to France, but is found over 

 the greater part of Europe, in Asia Minor up to Persia, and 

 in North Africa as far as Egypt. Von Siebold, who investi- 

 gated very carefully this species of wasp, has come to the 

 (after all, not startling) conclusion that many of their actions 

 are not the result of instinct, but of conscious reflexion 

 (" Parthenogenesis of the Arthropoda," Leipsic, 1871). This 

 is seen in their defence of their nest against ants, which are 

 seized with a spring by the jaws and carried away as far as 

 possible from the nest, or against strange wasps of their own 

 species which steal their larva? to feed their own young, 

 against which they are sometimes obliged to call in the aid 

 of the workers of their nest. Stranger wasps are recognised 

 as such by touching them with the antennae. The small and 

 neat nests of the Polistes, generally hung on plants, are easy 

 to watch, for they have no covering like those of^other wasps ; 

 they are, therefore, turned with their covered or closed sides 

 towards the west, so that wind and rain, which come generally 

 from that quarter, may not penetrate. How very well this 

 little creature knows how to otherwise adapt the building of 

 its nests to circumstances, and to choose suitable places for 

 its object, is shown by the observations of Rouget (Mem. 

 de V Academic de Dijon), who found nests of Polistes near 

 Dijon in the interstices of tiles on wall-copings, which give 

 to these positions great shelter and warmth, and in old 

 glasses and cups in dustheaps. 



The housekeeping of the Polistes, which have only males 

 and two sorts of females (a larger and a less developed 

 smaller), mirrors, according to Graber (loc. cit., ii., p. 91), 

 the original^condition of the bees. The smaller females 



