350 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
The workers are the most numerous, and to us the only troublesome 
part of the community ; upon whom devolves the main business. of the 
nest. In the summer and autumnal months, they go forth by myriads into 
the neighbouring country to collect provisions ; and on their return to the 
common den, after reserving a sufficiency for the nutriment of the young 
brood, they divide the spoil with great impartiality ;—part being given to 
the females, part to the males, and part to those workers that have been 
engaged in extending and fortifying the vespiary. This division is volun. 
tarily made, without the slightest symptom of compulsion, Several wasps 
assemble round each of the returning workers, and receive their respective 
portions. It is curious and interesting to observe their motions upon this 
occasion. As soon as a wasp, that has been filling itself with the juice of 
fruits, arrives at the nest, it perches upon the top, and, disgorging a drop of 
its saccharine fluid, is attended sometimes by two at once, who share the 
treasure : this being thus distributed, a second and sometimes a third drop 
is produced, which falls to the lot of others, 
Wasps do not in general store up honey, but it is found in the cells of 
some European species of Polistes, as well as in those of America; and M, 
A. de St. Hilaire was nearly poisoned by eating that collected by P. leche. 
guana, which inhabits Paraguay and Monte Video.! Another wasp before 
referred to under “Habitations of Insects,” as forming a nest somewhat 
similar to that of Chatergus nidulans, also stores up honey, as we learn from 
the interesting paper of Mr. Adam White, who has named it Myrapetra 
scutellaris? 
Another principal employment of the workers is the enlarging and re- 
pairing of the nest. It is extremely amusing to see them engaged upon 
this foliaceous covering. They work with great celerity ; and though a 
large number are occupied at the same time, there is not the least confusion, 
Each individual has its portion of work assigned to it, extending from an 
inch to an inch and a half, and is furnished with a ball of ligneous fibre, 
scraped or rather plucked by its powerful jaws from posts, rails, and the 
like. This is carried in its mouth, and is thus ready for immediate use: — 
but upon this subject I have enlarged in a former letter. The workers also 
clean the cells and prepare them to receive another egg, after the imago is 
disclosed and has left it. 
There is good reason for thinking, and the opinion has the sanction of 
Sir Joseph Banks, that wasps have sentinels placed at the entrances of 
their nests, which if you can once seize and destroy, the remainder will 
not attack you.. This is confirmed by an observation of Mr. Knight’s in 
the Philosophical Transactions, that if a nest of wasps be approached 
without alarming the inhabitants, and all communication be suddenly cut 
off between t! ose out of the nest and those within it, no provocation will 
induce the former to defend it and themselves. But if one escapes from 
within, it comes with a very different temper, and appears commissioned 
to avenge public wrongs, and prepared to sacrifice its life in the! execution 
ofits orders, He discovered this when quite a boy. : f 
It sometimes happens that when a large number of female wasps have 
been observed in the spring, and an abundance of workers has in conse- 
quence been expected to make their attack upon us in the summer and 
1 Lacordaire, Introd, & ?Entom, ii. 511, 2 Annals of Nat. Hist, vii, 316. 
5 For 1807, 242—, 
