2 IS IIYMENOFTERA. 
becomes a scene of confiisien, the neuters, 
or labouring wasps, join with the males 
to drag all the eggs^ worms, and nymphs, 
out of the cells, and to destroy them ; 
after this they fight together ; many are 
killed ; the remainder are destroyed by 
the cold weather, and a few females only 
escape, by creeping into sheltered nooks, 
where they continue in a state of tor- 
pidity, or sleep, till revived by the warmth 
of spring. 
Lucy, If it were not for this war, by 
which such thousands are killed, we 
should be overrun with wasps. I sup- 
pose, mamma, that the labourers murder 
the young ones, to save themselves the 
trouble of providing food for them, which 
it would be so difficult to find ? 
Mother. There is a small species of 
wasp in South America, which builds 
its nest of a substance resembling the 
finest paper. The nest is something like 
a box, and is suspended to the branch of a 
tree. 
Lucy, How pretty the little white 
