164 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



their labor is over, and their course is run, and that in a short 

 time they will all die of old age, so that the helpless nurslings in 

 the cells would find no food, and must perish by starvation. 



At last the entire population deserts the nest, the workers die, 

 and so do all the males, none of them surviving their brief wed- 

 lock for more than a few hours ; and the majority of the females 

 die also, some from exposure to cold, and others by a violent 

 death. Those, however, that are fortunate enough to find a crev- 

 ice in which they can lie dormant during the long months of 

 winter, creep into it, and there remain until the following spring, 

 when they emerge to be the queens and mothers of future colo- 

 nies. It is a remarkable fact that the Wasp never passes the 

 winter in the nest, convenient as that spot may seem, but always 

 seeks some other place of refuge. The reader will now compre- 

 hend that, whenever a Wasp is seen in the spring-tide, it is one 

 of the females which have survived the winter, and is about to 

 found a new colony. Those, therefore, who pride themselves on 

 their wall-fruit will do well to kill such Wasps, inasmuch as a 

 single queen Wasp in spring is equivalent to many thousand 

 Wasps in autumn. 



Three species of burrowing Wasps inhabit England — namely, 

 the common Wasp, which has just been described; the German 

 Wasp ( Vespa Germanica), distinguished from the preceding spe- 

 cies by having three black spots at the root of the first ring of the 

 abdomen ; and the Eed Wasp ( Vespa rufa), known by the black 

 anchor on the top of the head, and the reddish-yellow limbs. 



Mr. F. Smith mentions a very remarkable circumstance con- 

 nected with the removal of Wasp grubs by the worker. " There 

 is a point which I have more than once witnessed in the history 

 of Wasps, which does not appear to have been recorded. In the 

 spring I have found as many as three nests in a bank, not more 

 than two hundred yards apart ; and on visiting the spot a month 

 or so later, I observed no Wasps issuing from the first nest, and, 

 on digging into the bank, discovered that it was deserted, a single 

 empty comb alone remaining. I then passed on to the second 

 nest, and was surprised to observe a few Wasps come out, each 

 carrying something away ; at length I captured one, and found it 

 was conveying larvae from the nest. I traced them in their flight, 

 and was astonished to see a Wasp enter the third nest with a lar- 

 vae from the nest No. 2. 



" Here there ii a mystery which time will unravel, but which I 



