91 



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 for their young, and on their habita- 

 tions. 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 barrenness of the subject. 



The first of these animals, wasps ( Vespd) — with whose pro- 

 ceedings I shall begin — we are apt to regard in a very un- 

 favourable 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 attempt to drive them away, and are 

 not very cautious, they will often make us sensible that they 

 are not to be provoked with impunity. Compared with the 

 bees, they may be considered as a horde of thieves and brigands; 

 and the latter as peaceful, honest, and industrious subjects, 

 whose persons are attacked and property plundered by them. 

 Yet, with all this love of pillage and other bad propensities, 

 they are not altogether disagreeable or unamiable ; they are 

 brisk and lively ; they do not usually attack unprovoked ; and 

 their object in plundering us is not purely selfish, but is prin- 

 cipally to provide for the support of the young brood of their 

 colonies. 



The societies of wasps, like those of ants and other social 

 Hymenoptera, consist of females, males, and workers. The 



