HYMEKOPTERA, 
rous infe&s-j who purfue their prey on full diretch 
of wing. 
Vespa Vulgaris, Common Wasp . 
The common, domeflic, or fubterraneous wafps, 
raife buildings, live in afTociations, feed on plunder, 
and commit great outrages on our wall-fruit. 
This numerous commonwealth is founded by a 
fingle female, which has weathered out the feverity 
of the winter. She digs a hole in a dry foil, or 
takes up with the dwelling-place of a mole, where 
fhe haftily" builds a few -cells, and depofits her eggs. 
In twenty days fhe has a progeny of neuter (or work¬ 
ing) wafps, ready to labour ; thefe go to work, en¬ 
large the hole, go about upon wood, httice-work, and 
window-fafhes, in fearch of materials for building; 
with their teeth they cut, hack, and tear off fmall 
fibres of wood, which they moiften with a liquor 
which they difgorge, and then convey them to the 
work (hop. 
Other labourers are in waiting for them, who, 
With thofe materials, fet about the conflruttion of 
the wafp-nefl: an edifice outwardly compofed of 
fheets of paper, which not being in contact with 
each other, dampnefs cannot penetrate to the infide, 
which confifts of twelve or fifteen (lories, and be¬ 
tween each runs a colonade, formed by the faflen- 
ings, which conneft the cakes one to the other. 
Every 
