172 LIFE, IN ITS INTERMEDIATE FORMS. 



able, are equalled, if not indeed surpassed, by those of the 

 social Wasps ; though these latter, because they do not 

 minister to our wants, and perhaps, also, because of their 

 irascibility, are viewed with a dislike, which has tended 

 to avert from their architecture that measure of popular 

 attention which it well deserves. 



The common Wasp (Vespa vulgaris) conceals her work 

 beneath the surface of the earth ; there she builds a sub- 

 terranean city. We say " she," for it is observable that 

 the populous commonwealth which teems forth on the 

 uncovering of a " Wopse's nest," is exclusively the pro- 

 geny of one mother Wasp, which has survived the winter ; 

 and the city was built, or at least founded, by her alone. 



She first finds or makes an excavation in some hedge- 

 bank — a winding gallery a foot or more in length, and 

 an inch in diameter, opening at length into a capacious 

 chamber, as large as a butter-firkin, or larger. This being 

 prepared, she seeks her materials for building. These are 

 not wax, but paper. From window-sills, weather-beaten 

 palings, old posts, and similar sources, the industrious in- 

 sect collects the minute surface-fibres with her mandibles, 

 bruising them, and moistening them with a liquid from 

 her mouth, until they form a pappy substance, which is 

 nothing else than a true paper. 



" With this material the mother Wasp begins to line the 

 roof of her burrow, always building from above down- 

 wards. The round ball of fibres which she has previously 

 kneaded up with glue, she now forms into a leaf, walking 

 backwards, and spreading it out with her mandibles, her 

 tongue, and her feet, till it is almost as thin as tissue- 

 paper. 



