92 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



females may be considered as of two sorts : first, the females 

 by way of eminence, much larger than any other individuals 

 of the community, equalling six of the workers (from which 

 in other respects they do not materially differ) in weight, and 

 laying both male and female eggs. Then the small females, 

 not bigger than the workers, and laying only male eggs. This 

 last description of females, which are found also both amongst 

 the humble-bees and hive-bees, were first observed amongst 

 the wasps by M. Perrot, a friend of Huber's. 1 The large fe- 

 males are produced later than the workers, and make their 

 appearance in the following spring ; and whoever destroys one 

 of them at that time destroys an entire colony, of which she 

 would be the founder. They are more worthy of praise than 

 the queen-bee ; since upon the latter, from her very first ap- 

 pearance in the perfect state, no labour devolves — all her 

 wants being prevented by a host of workers, some of which 

 are constantly attending upon her, feeding her, and permitting 

 her to suffer no fatigue ; while others take every step that is 

 necessary for the safety and subsistence of the colony. Not 

 so our female wasp ; — she is at first an insulated being that 

 has had the fortune to survive the rigours of winter. When 

 in the spring she lays the foundation of her future empire, 

 she has not a single worker at her disposal : with her own 

 hands and teeth she often hollows out a cave wherein she may 

 lay the first foundations of her paper metropolis ; she must 

 herself build the first houses, and produce from her own womb 

 their first inhabitants, which in their infant state she must 

 feed and educate, before they can assist her in her great de- 

 sign. At length she receives the reward of her perseverance 

 and labour ; and from being a solitary unconnected individual, 

 in the autumn is enabled to rival the queen of the hive in the 

 number of her children and subjects, and in the edifices which 

 they inhabit — the number of cells in a vespiary sometimes 

 amounting to more than 16,000, almost all of which contain 

 either an egg, a grub, or a pupa, and each cell serving for 

 three generations in a year ; which, after making every allow- 

 ance for failures and other casualties, will give a population of 



1 Huber, Nouv. Observ, ii. 443. 



