12 
away, leaving the streaks or fibres standing up above 
the rest of the surface, being perhaps too hard to 
answer its purpose. 
Mr. Wood, in the work before quoted, says, “ The 
* males are employed to collect the wood from the 
“frames of windows, and from old posts and rails.” 
If by this he means that the males are employed 
exclusively in collecting materials, (and he does not 
mention that the neuters give them any assistance,) 
the statement cannot possibly be correct, and I 
much doubt whether they ever join the others at 
all in that part of the labours of the colony. They 
are certainly not produced early in the season, when 
the first neuters are hatched; and at all events their 
numbers are so small compared with the neuters, 
that they would be quite incapable of collecting suf- 
ficient wood for constructing a nest of ordinary di- 
mensions. I believe that their chief occupation con- 
sists in cleaning and preparing the cells for succes- 
sive broods, though they may perhaps occasionally 
assist the neuters in building and gathering mate- 
rials ; but the chief portion of the work is performed 
by the latter; and we accordingly find, that they 
are the first that die in the autumn, when there is 
no longer any necessity for their assistance. Kirby 
and Spence (vol. ii. p.110.) likewise deny that the 
males assist in building or in feeding the young, 
but consider them as the “ scavengers of the com- 
“ munity, for they sweep the passages and streets, 
* and carry away all the filth.” 
The exterior covering of the nest of the Vespa 
Britannica, when completed, is composed of from 
ten to sixteen layers of the paper-like substance be- 
fore mentioned, disposed one over the other, in such 
