LETTER XVIII. 
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
PERFECT SOCIETIES CONTINUED. (Wasps and Humble- 
Bees.) 
I SHALL now call your attention to such parts of the 
history of two other descriptions of social insects, wasps, 
namely, and humble-bees, as have not been related to you 
in my letters on the affection of insects fortheir young, 
and on their habitations. What I have to communicate, 
though not devoid of interest, is not to be compared with 
the preceding account of the ants, nor with that which 
will follow of the hive-bee. ‘This, however, may arise 
more from the deficiency of observations than the bar- 
renness of the subject. 
The first of these animals, wasps,—with whose pro- 
ceedings I shall begin,—we are apt to regard in a very 
unfavourable light. They are the most impertinent of 
intruders. If “a door or window be open at the season 
of the year in which they appear, they are sure to enter. 
When they visit us, they stand upon no ceremony, but 
make free with every thing that they can come at. Sugar, 
meat, fruit, wine, are equally to their taste; and if we at- 
tempt to drive them away, and are not very cautious, 
_ they will often make us sensible that they are not to be 
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