216 ;hymenoptera. 
supported by numerous pillars. When 
the cells are completed, the queen lays an 
egg in each, to the number of fifteen, or 
even twenty thousand ; and all these pro- 
duce neuters, or labourers. While larvse 
they are fed by the elder wasps, first with 
the juices of fruit, which they distribute 
from their own mouths into those of the 
young worms, and as the larvse gain 
strength, vvith the dead bodies of insects. 
As soon as this generation became wasps, 
they likewise labour at the nest, and are 
employed in feeding the larvse of the 
next brood. Having provided a sufficient 
number of labourers, the queen begins 
about the end of July to lay eggs, which 
produce male and female wasps ; the 
males have their appointed work, which 
is to clean out the nest, and to clear away 
the fragments of their meals, which con- 
sist of the honey-bags of bees, dead in- 
sects, and scraps of meat, particularly of 
veal, and all of which had been brought 
home to the cells by the workers, and 
impartially divided amongst the whole 
community. 
