remain entirely idle. They are often occupied in the interior part of the nest. The greatest part of the labour, however, is performed by the neuters. They build the nest, feed the males, the females, and even the young. But while the neuters are employed in these different operations, the others are abroad in hunting parties. Some attack with intrepidity live insects, which they sometimes carry entire to the nest; but they generally transport the abdomen or belly only others pillage butchers? stalls, from which they often arrive with a piece of meat larger than the half of their own bodies: others resort to gardens, and suck the juices of fruits. When they return to the nest, they distribute a part of their plunder to the females, to the males, and even to such neuters as have been usefully occupied at home. As soon as a neuter enters the nest, it is surrounded by several wasps, to each of whom it freely gives a portion of the food it has brought. Those who have not been hunting for prey, but have been sucking the juices of fruits, though they seem to return empty, fail not to regale their companions; for, after their arrival, they station themselves upon the upper part of the nest, and discharge from their mouths two or three drops of a clear liquid, which are immediately swallowed by the domestics.

The neuter wasps, though the most laborious, are the smallest; but they are extremely active and vivacious. The females are much larger, heavier, and slower in their motions. The males are of an intermediate size between that of the females and neuters. From these differences in size, it is easy to distinguish the different kinds of those wasps which build their nests below the ground. In the hive of the honey-bee, the number of females is always extremely small; but in a wasp's nest there are often more than three hundred females. During the

months of June, July, and August, they remain constantly in the nest, and are never seen abroad except in the beginning of spring, and in the months of September and October. During the summer, they are totally occupied in laying their eggs and feeding their young. In this last operation, they are assisted by the other wasps; for the females alone, though numerous, would be insufficient for the laborious task. A wasp's nest, when completed, sometimes consists of sixteen thousand cells, each of which contains an egg, a worm, or a nymph. The eggs are white, transparent, of an oblong figure, and differ in size, according to the kind of wasps which are to proceed from them. Some of them are no larger than the head of a small pin. They are so firmly glued to the bottoms of the cells, that it is with difficulty they can be detached without breaking. Eight days after the eggs are deposited in the cells, the worms are hatched, and are considerably larger than the eggs which gave birth to them. These worms demand the principal cares of the wasps that continue always in the nest. They feed them, as birds feed their young, by giving them, from time to time, a mouthful of food. It is asto

nishing to see with what industry and rapidity a female runs along the cells of a comb, and distributes to each worm a portion of nutriment. In proportion to the ages and conditions of the worms, they are fed with solid food, such as the bellies of insects, or with a liquid substance disgorged by the mother. When a worm is so large as to occupy its whole cell, it is then ready to be metamorphosed into a nymph. It then refuses all nourishment, and ceases to have any connexion with the wasps in the nest. It shuts up the mouth of its cell with a fine silken cover, in the same manner as the silkworm and other caterpillars spin their cods. This operation is completed in three or four hours, and the animal re

mains in the nymph state nine or ten days, when, with its teeth, it destroys the external cover of the cell, and comes forth in the form of a winged insect. In a short time, the wasps newly transformed receive the food brought into the nest by the foragers in the fields. What is still more curious, in the course of the first day after their transformation, the young wasps have been observed going to the fields, bringing in provisions, and distributing them to the worms in the cells. A cell is no sooner abandoned by a young wasp, than it is cleaned, trimmed, and repaired by an old one, and rendered, in every respect, proper for the reception of another egg.

As wasps of different sexes differ greatly in size, they know how to construct cells proportioned to the dimensions of the fly that is to proceed from the egg which the female deposits in them. The neuters are six times smaller than the females, and their cells are built nearly in the same proportion. Cells are not only adapted for the reception of neuters, males, and females, but it is remarkable that the cells of the neuters are never intermixed with those of the males or females. A comb is entirely occupied with small cells fitted for the reception of neuter worms. But male and female cells are often found in the same comb. The males and females are of equal length, and, of course, require cells of an equal depth. But the cells of the males are narrower than those of the females, because the bodies of the former are never so thick as those of the latter.

This wonderful assemblage of combs, of the pillars which support them, and of the external envelope, is an edifice which requires several months' labour, and serves the animals one year only. This habitation, so populous in summer, is almost deserted in winter, and abandoned entirely in spring; for, in this last season, not a single wasp is to be found in a nest of the preceding year. It is worthy of remark,

that the first combs of a nest are always accommodated for the reception of the neuter or working wasps. The city, of which the foundation has just been laid, requires a number of workers. The neuter or working wasps are accordingly first produced. A cell is no sooner half completed than an egg of a neuter is deposited in it by the female. Of fourteen or fifteen combs inclosed in a common cover, the last four only are destined for the reception of males and females. Hence it uniformly happens, that, before the males and females are capable of taking flight, every wasp's nest is peopled with several thousand neuters or workers. But the neuters, that are first produced, are likewise the first that perish: for not one of them survives the termination even of a mild winter.

The female wasps are stronger, and support the rigours of winter better than the males or neuters. Before the end of winter, however, several hundred females die, and not above ten or a dozen in each nest survive that season. These few females are destined for the continuation of the species. Each of them becomes the founder of a new republic. When a queen-bee departs from a hive in order to establish a new one, she is always accompanied by several thousand industrious labourers, ready to perform every necessary operation. But the female wasp has not the aid of a single labourer; for all the neuters are dead before the beginning of spring. The female alone lays the foundation of a new republic. She either finds or digs a hole under the earth, builds cells for the reception of her eggs, and feeds the worms which proceed from them. Whenever any of these neuter worms are transformed into flies, they immediately assist their parent in augmenting the number of cells and combs, and in feeding the young worms, which are daily hatching from the eggs. In a word, this female wasp, which in spring was per

fectly solitary, without any proper habitation, and had every operation to perform, has, in autumn, several thousands of her offspring at her devotion, and is furnished with a magnificent palace, or rather city, to protect her from the injuries of the weather and from external enemies.

With regard to the male wasps, it is uncertain whether any of them survive the winter. But, though not so indolent as the males of the honeybee, they can be of little assistance to the female; for they never engage in any work of importance, such as constructing cells, or fortifying the external cover of the nest. They are never brought forth till toward the end of August: and their sole occupation seems to be that of keeping the nest clean, They carry out every kind of filth, and the carcases of such of their companions as happen to die. In performing this operation, two of them often join, and when the load is too heavy, they cut off the head, and transport the dead animal at two different times.

In the beginning of spring, when the female wasp has built her subterraneous habitation, which is soon to be peopled with thousands of flies, she has no occasion for the males; because, in the month of September or October, she had been previously im pregnated. The males and females are produced at the same time, and they are nearly equal in number Like the male honey-bees, the male wasps are destitute of stings, but the females and neuters have stings.