96 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



seen. The continued wet that produces an inundation may 

 also destroy those nests that are out of the reach of the 

 waters ; and perhaps this cause may have operated in those 

 years above alluded to, in which the appearance of the 

 workers in the summer and autumn did not correspond with 

 the large numbers of females observed in the spring. 



In ordinary seasons, in the month lately mentioned, 

 October, wasps seem to become less savage and sanguinary ; 

 for even flies, of which earlier in the summer they are the 

 pitiless destroyers, may be seen to enter their nests with 

 impunity. It is then, probably, that they begin to be first 

 affected by the approach of the cold season, when nature 

 teaches them it is useless longer to attend to their young. 

 They themselves all perish, except a few of the females, upon 

 the first attack of frost. 



Reaumur, from whom (see the sixth Memoir of his last 

 volume) most of these observations are taken, put the nests 

 of wasps under glass hives, and succeeded so effectually in 

 reconciling these little restless creatures to them that they 

 carried on their various works under his eye ; and if you feel 

 disposed to follow his example, I have no doubt you will 

 throw light upon many parts of their history, concerning 

 which we are now in darkness. 



Having given you some idea, imperfect indeed from the 

 want of materials, of the societies of wasps, I must next draw 

 up for you the best account I can of those of the humble-bees. 1 

 These form a kind of intermediate link between the wasps 

 and the hive -bees, collecting honey indeed and making wax, 

 but constructing their combs and cells without the geometric 

 precision of the latter, and of a more rude and rustic kind of 

 architecture; and distinguished from both, though they 

 approach nearer to the bees, by the extreme hairiness of their 

 bodies. 



The population of a humble-bees' nest may be divided into 

 four orders of individuals: the large females; the small fe- 

 males ; the males ; and the workers. 



1 Bombus. Apis **. e. 2. K. 



