cells, and the solid columns that support the several stories of the comb.

In the republic of Wasps, like that of Bees, there are three different kinds of flies; males, females, and neuters. The greatest share of labour devolves upon the neuters: but they are not, like the neuter bees, the only workers; for there is no part of the different operations which the females, at certain times, do not execute. Nor do the males remain entirely idle. The neuters, however, build the nest, feed the males, the females, and even the young-ones. But, while these are occupied in different employments at home, the others are abroad in hunting-parties. Some of them attack with intrepidity live insects, which they sometimes carry entire to the nest; but if these be at all large, they transport only the abdomen. Others make

war on the bees, killing them for the honey they have in their bodies, or plundering their hives for the fruits of their labour. Some resort to the gardens, and suck the juices of fruit; and others pillage butchers' stalls, from which they often arrive with a piece of meat larger than even half of their own bodies.

When they return to their nest, they distribute a portion of their plunder to the females, to the males, and 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 which it freely gives a portion of the food it has brought. Those that 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 at the upper part of the nest, and discharge from their mouths two or three drops of clear liquid, which are immediately swallowed by the domestics.

The neuter Wasps are the smallest, the females are much larger and heavier than these, and the males are of an intermediate size between the two. In the hive of the Honey-bee, the number of females is extremely

small; but in a Wasp's nest they often amount to more than three hundred.

The eggs are white, transparent, and of an oblong shape; but they differ in size, according to the kind of Wasps that are to proceed from them. At the end of eight days after they are deposited in the cells, the grubs are hatched. These demand the principal care of such Wasps as continue always in the nest. They are fed in the same manner as birds, by receiving, from time to time, a mouthful of food from the insects which have the care of them. It is astonishing 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 liquid substance, or with solid food.

When a worm is so large as to occupy its whole cell, it is ready to be metamorphosed into a chrysalis. It then refuses all nourishment, and ceases to have any connexion with the Wasps in the nest. It closes the mouth of its cell with a fine silken cover. This operation is completed in three or four hours, and the animal remains a chrysalis nine or ten days. After this, it destroys, with its teeth, the external cover of the cell, and issues forth a winged insect, which is either male, female, or neuter, according to the nature of the egg from which it was hatched. In a short time the Wasps newly transfornied receive the food that is brought to them by the foragers from the fields. What is still more wonderful is, that in the course of even the first day after their transformation, the young Wasps have been observed to go into the fields, bring in provisions, and distribute them to the worms in the cells. A cell is no sooner abandoned by a young Wasp, than it is cleaned, trimmed, repaired by the old ones, and rendered in every respect proper for the reception of another egg.

Cells are constructed of different dimensions for the neuters, males, and females; and it is very remarkable,

that those of the neuters are never intermixed with the cells destined for others.

This wonderful edifice, which requires the labour of the animals for several months, serves them only for a year; and, notwithstanding its population during the summer, it is almost deserted in winter, and is abandoned entirely in the 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, whose care and attention are first required; so that it uniformly happens, that before the males and females are capable of taking flight, every Wasp's nest is peopled with several thousands of neuters or workers. But the neuters which 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 either 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. With regard to the male Wasps, it is uncertain whether any of them survive. But, though not so indolent as the males of the honey-bee, they can be but 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 not produced till near 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 bodies 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 twice.

About the beginning of October, every nest presents

a strange scene of cruelty. At this season, the Wasps not only cease to bring nourishment to their youngones, but they drag the grubs from their cells, and carry them out of the nest, where they are either killed by the Wasps, or perish from exposure to the weather and deprivation of food. This procedure would at first seem a strange violation of parental affection; but the intentions of Providence, though they often elude our researches, are never wrong. What appears to us cruel and unnatural, in this instinctive devastation committed annually by the Wasps, is perhaps an act of the greatest mercy that could have taken place. Wasps are not, like the honey-bees, endowed with the instinct of laying up a store of provisions for winter. If not prematurely destroyed by their parents, the youngones must necessarily die a cruel and lingering death, occasioned by hunger. Hence this seemingly harsh conduct in the economy of Wasps, instead of affording an exception to the universal benevolence and wisdom of nature, is, in reality, a most merciful effort of instinct.

Like the male honey-bees, the male Wasps are destitute of stings; but the females and neuters have stings, the poisonous liquor of which, when introduced into any part of the human body, excites inflammation, and creates a considerable degree of pain. Their sting consists of a hollow and very sharp-pointed tube, haying at its root a bag of pungent juice, which, in the act of stinging, is pressed out, and conveyed through the tube into the flesh. There are also two small, sharp, and bearded spears, lying, as in a sheath, within the tube. Dr. Derham counted, on the side of each spear, eight beards, which, he says, were formed somewhat like the beards of fish-hooks. These spears lie one with its points a little before the other in the sheath, to be ready, in all probability, to be first darted into the flesh; where, being once fixed, by means of its foremost beard, the other then strikes in also; and, in this manner, they alternately pierce deeper and deeper, their beards tak

ing more and more hold in the flesh; after which the sting or sheath follows, in order to convey the poison into the wound. The hole in the tube is not exactly at the end, for in that case the instrument would not be so well able to wound: the sting is drawn to a hard and sharp point, and the incision through which the spears and poison are ejected, is a little below it. By means of this mechanism it is, that the sting, even when parted from the body, is able to pierce and make us smart; and by means of the beards being lodged deep in the flesh, it is, also, that these insects leave their stings behind them, when they are disturbed before they have had time to withdraw their spears completely

into the tube.

THE CAMPANULAR WASP *.

In the summer of 1807, I found a nest of one of these Wasps, suspended to the rafter of a small bathinghouse, belonging to a gentleman in the parish of Christchurch, Hants. It was of a somewhat globular shape, and in size about twice as large as a walnut.

The nidification of this insect is scarcely less curious than that of a bird. The nest is usually suspended. from the upper part of some barn or outhouse, and consists of three or four, and sometimes more, concentric globes, of a consistence somewhat resembling whitybrown paper, with a small circular opening at the bottom. In the middle of the interior or central globe, is placed a congeries of cells, to the number of twelve, fifteen, or twenty. These are arranged round a kind of central column, and are composed of the same paper-like substance as the other parts; the exterior

* DESCRIPTION. This insect has a yellowish line on each side of the thorax, two yellowish spots on the scutellum, and a yellowish abdomen, with transverse black rings, accompanied by black spots at their ends.

SYNONYMS. Vespa campanaria. Shaw.-Vespa Holsatica. Latreille.-La Guêpe de Holsteine. Latreille.