392 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY chap. 



In eight days the first eggs hatch, and now the 

 queen has to be nurse as well as paper-maker, 

 nest-builder, and mother. She goes out quickly to get what 

 food she may, perhaps to steal it from our table, or perhaps 

 to get it from the little chocolate-coloured flower, the figwort, 

 if yet in bloom, or from some other flower specially attractive 

 to her. 



Coming back, she feeds her little ones from her own mouth, 

 as they hang head downwards in their cells, preserved from 

 falling by still keeping the ends of their bodies tucked away 

 inside the egg-shells, which are glued to the tops of the cells. 

 They grow rapidly, and she soon has to enlarge their cradles, 

 making them now hexagonal in section. Finally, when 

 about fourteen days old, each larva spins a cocoon and 

 pupates for ten days. 



For nearly a month, therefore, after the laying of her 

 first eggs the queen toils alone, but by the end of that time 

 the first batch of workers is fully developed,.and they bite 

 their way out of their cells, and almost immediately begin to 

 help. First, however, they need food, and they obtain their 

 earliest meal as full-grown wasps in a curious way, for they 

 go round to all the bigger larvae, arid by tapping the heads of 

 these with their jaws they induce each to give out a drop of 

 a liquid which they then eagerly swallow.^ 



As more and more workers develop, they relieve 



ine Colonv *^® queen of one duty after another, until all that 



remains for her to do is to add to the population, 



and she now always stays within the nest and is fed by her 



attendants. 



Now that there are many to labour, the community grows 

 apace. Work commences before 5 A.M. every day and con- 

 tinues till dusk. Tier after tier of fresh brood-comb has to be 

 added, even though the old cells are used again and again. 

 The new tiers of cells are built below the previous ones, and 

 held suspended from them by a central stalk, several extra 

 pillars being added at different points. The original stalk of 

 suspension is also strengthened as new combs are added 

 (Fig. 303). 



The nest, when fully formed, will be nearly 

 spherical, and, if a large one, may be 16 or 17 



^ 0. H. Latter, Natural History, p. 145. 



