hing tending to 
ict two 1 in the year, and 
ng up part of their young in one nest, 
it,in order to undergo the labour of con- 
icting a second, instead of enlarging the first; nor is 
any analogy, in the history of any other insect, 
ich would lead us to infer that such is likely to 
the case. The fact, that the same nest is gradually 
arged from one to twelve inches in diameter, does 
ot admit of a doubt, and a very slight degree of 
e - observation is sufficient to confirm it ; and Leach is 
further in error, when he says that the first brood 
Fake neuters is not hatched till « late in the summer.” 
It requires about thirty days4 from the time the ege 
is deposited, till its transformation into a perfect 
a M A 
__wasp is completed; and as the nests are commenced 
Po. 
_ early in the spring, it follows that the first brood 
_ Inust emerge from their cells only a month later. It 
is also contrary to the opinion of all authors who 
r have written upon the subject, to suppose that the 
_ mother of the brood covers the grubs herself with 
that silky covering under which their last transfor- 
mation is completed. Reaumur frequently saw the 
larvee in the act of spinning the envelope, and I can 
4 The egg is usually hatched in eight days, and then assuihes 
the form of a grub ; it is then fed by the female for thirteen or 
fourteen days, when the grub covers the mouth of its cell with 
the silky substance before mentioned. It remains in this state 
about nine days more, and then eats its way through the cover- 
ing, and joins the rest in the labours of the nest. As soon as 
any neuters are hatched, the care of feeding the larve devolves 
upon them, and from that time the female rarely if ever quits 
the nest. On emerging from the cell, the young wasp is some- 
what lighter coloured than the rest, but is the same in all other 
respects. 
B 
