THE WASP. 
s~ti 
the parent hive a young colony, and founds a new em- 
pire, is efientially a queen ; for ihe is more implicitly- 
obeyed than the bed of monarchs, by the moft loyal of 
his lieges. The female wafp, as her ftation is more la- 
borious, fo her genius feems more enterprifing Unaided 
by any of her kind, (he lays, in the beginning of every 
feafon, the foundation of a new edifice, which is deftined 
to be the birth place of many thoufands of her fpecies. 
She conftructs the firlt cells, to which fhe commits the 
earlieft of her eggs, which in time become mule wafps, 
the mod aftive and laborious of the whole race ; and by 
thefe the is affifted in completing the reft of the work. 
The male wafps are not fo flothful as the male bee ; 
they difcharge feveral duties in the interior parts of the 
hive ; but in the art of building, either the cells or the 
external covering, they are altogether unlkilled. This 
falls to be executed by the mulos, who carry it on with 
amazing difpatch. They collect together the fmall fibres 
of half rotten wood, which they moiften with a glutinous 
fubftance, and bake up into that paper of which all their 
work is formed. 
The aerial wafp conftru&s fmall nefts of about the fize 
of an orange, which it attaches to the branch of a tree. 
This compaft little edifice is expofed to the weather, but 
is rendered impenetrable to rain, by a number of leaves 
which are placed round it, exaftly refembling an invert- 
ed rofe. A particular fpecies in the neighbourhood of 
Cayenne, conftru<ft a large oblong box, about twelve or 
fifteen inches long, of fine parchment, which is alfo pen- 
dent from the branch of a tree ; there the combs fabri- 
cated of the fame fubftance, are ranged horizontally, in 
different ftories, one above the other; each having a 
round 
