402 



Marvels of the Universe 



queens, while at the same time from other cells appeared another host of slender-bodied Wasps with 

 very long feelers. The latter were the male suitors of these queens of the future. In the course 

 of a few days they selected their mates and left the nest never to return. What eventually 

 happens to these males and queens has already been told. 



Many of the workers still remained in the nest, but they appeared to have all suddenly gone 



mad. Their sole occupation was that 

 nf pulhng out the half-developed 

 urubs from their cells, dragging them 

 Id the entrance of the nest and 

 leaving them there to perish on the 

 ground. Many ridiculous solutions 

 of this action have been advanced. 

 It is not infrequently attributed to a 

 merciful instinct on the part of the 

 \\ orkers, who apparently realize that, 

 with cold weather approaching, they 

 will not be able to rear their charges 

 and consequently they mercifully ter- 

 minate their suffering. The true ex- 

 planation is, I think, one of sanitation. 

 An instinctive impulse guides them 

 to clear the nest of the starving grubs, 

 just as they would rid it of anj' other 

 matter which threatened the health 

 of the community. Then, however, 

 arises the question : Why should 

 they clear a nest which every hour is 

 becoming more and more deserted ? 

 Until late in the year there are still 

 queens and males to emerge, and the 

 last service the workers render to 

 their race is to remove the grubs 

 they cannot rear, so that these sexual 

 individuals may mature in a healthy 

 atmosphere. 



Afterwards, when all the grubs 

 are removed from the cells, the 

 young workers forsake the nest, and, 

 having no home ties or young to 

 feed, they become freebooters, giving 

 themselves over to orgies in any 

 warm kitchen where thejr can scent 

 savoury food being prepared. Their orgies may revive their spirits somew'hat for the time being, 

 but even though they may escape from the hands of the cook, 3'et their time is short ; for, having 

 deserted their nest, thej- now have no home, and as night approaches they seek shelter perhaps 

 beneath a leaf or in some similar situation, and so, sooner or later, wet and cold overtake them. 



Occasionally the Common Wasp will vary its building site ; perhaps the commonest place other 

 than underground is in the roof of a building. A monster and beautiful nest, which was built on a 

 beam in the roof of an empty house in Warwick during the extraordinarily hot summer of 1911, is 



Photo 60] 



W.-\SP PAPER. 



natural size, samples of three qualities of paper made 



Here are sho^vn. 



and used by the Wasps in the construction of their nests. The centre 

 sample is that of the Common Wasp, characterized by its shelly patches. 

 Above and below are shown paper from the nests of two species of Tree 

 Wasps, which is made in long layers. 



