PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



93 



at least 30,000. Even at this time, when she has so nu- 

 merous an army of coadjutors, the industry of this creature 

 does not cease, but she continues to set an example of dili- 

 gence to the rest of the community. If by any accident, 

 before the other females are hatched, the queen-mother pe- 

 rishes, the neuters cease their labours, lose their instincts, and 

 die. 



The number of females in a populous vespiary is consider- 

 able, amounting to several hundred ; they emerge from the 

 pupa about the latter end of August, at the same time with 

 the males, and fly in September and October, when they pair. 

 Of this large number of females, very few survive the winter. 

 Those that are so fortunate remain torpid till the vernal sun 

 recalls them to life and action. They then fly forth, collect 

 provision for their young brood, and are engaged in the other 

 labours necessary for laying the foundation of their empire : 

 but in the summer months they are never seen out of the 

 nest. 



The male wasps are much smaller than the female, but they 

 weigh as much as two workers. Their antennae are longer 

 than those of either, not, like theirs, thicker at the end, but 

 perfectly filiform ; and their abdomen is distinguished by an 

 additional segment. Their numbers about equal those of the 

 females, and they are produced at the same time. They are 

 not so wholly given to pleasure and idleness as the drones of 

 the hive. They do not, indeed, assist in building the nest, 

 and in the care of the young brood ; but they are the 

 scavengers of the community ; for they sweep the passages 

 and streets, and carry off all the filth. They also remove the 

 bodies of the dead, which are sometimes heavy burdens for 

 them ; in which case two unite their strength to accomplish 

 the work ; or, if a partner be not at hand, the wasp thus em- 

 ployed cuts off the head of the defunct, and so effects its 

 purpose. As they make themselves so useful, they are not, 

 like the male bees, devoted by the workers to an universal 

 massacre when the impregnation of the females, the great 

 end of their creation, is answered ; but they share the 

 general lot of the community, and are suffered to survive till 

 the cold cuts off them and the workers together. 



