THE WASP . 
89: 
they have assumed the perfect form, the Wasps which have 
been bred in these cells must be very much smaller than their 
parent. They are the worker wasps, or neuters, as they are 
sometimes called, whose entire life is devoted to labour, and 
who, in fact, are undeveloped females. 
Now, however, a change takes place. The cells of which 
the next few terraces are composeid are of very much larger 
dimensions than the others, and are intended for the purpose 
of hatching the grubs which will afterwards become perfect 
> male and female wasps. It will be seen, therefore, that the 
workers are hatched in the earlier part of the year, and that 
the male and female do not make their appearance until the 
end of the season. The cell-terraces increase gradually in 
diameter until the fourth or fifth, when they usually decrease 
slightly, and in exact accordance with their enlargement the 
covering is extended over them. 
At the end of the season, after successive bands of worker- 
wasps have passed through the cells, and the single generation 
of the males and females has come to maturity, the nest shows 
symptoms of dissolution. If there are any grubs still left in the 
comb, the workers at once change their behaviour. Instead of 
feeding and tending them with jealous care, instead of defend- 
ing them at the risk of their own lives, they pull these helpless 
white things out of their cradles, carry them far out of the nest, 
and abandon them. It seems a cruelty, and so it is ; but it is 
a cruel mercy, substituting a quick death by exposure, or, per- 
chance, being eaten by birds, for a slow and lingering death by 
starvation within the' nest. For the instinct of the workers tells 
them that their labour is over, and their course is run, and that 
in a short time they will all die of old age, so that the helpless 
nurslings in the cells would find no food, and must perish by 
starvation. 
At last, the entire population deserts the nest, the workers 
die, and so do all the males, none of them surviving their 
brief wedlock for more than a few hours ; and the majority of 
the females die also, some from exposure to cold, and others by a 
