Insect Life (Yesterday's Classics) by Buckley Arabella B

Author:Buckley, Arabella B. [Buckley, Arabella B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nature
ISBN: 9781599152769
Publisher: Yesterday's Classics
Published: 2010-11-08T13:43:25.491000+00:00

INSIDE OF COMMON WASPS' NEST

They not only build cells, they also cover the nest with a papery dome of several layers, which hangs like an open umbrella, from the lump at the top. When they have finished one comb it is like a round plate, and is smooth above, with a great number of cells underneath, all opening downwards.

The wasps then make several gluey pillars under this comb to hold up a new one below which they form in the same way as the first. So they go on till August, when there may be fifteen or sixteen flat round plates one below the other, joined by a number of pillars. Then they draw the papery dome in at the bottom so that the whole nest is a round or oval-shaped ball. As wasps do not store honey, these combs are only cells for grubs. The papery covering prevents the wet soaking in from the bank.

In August they build larger cells, out of which come males or drones which have longer antenna; than the workers and queen-wasps. These queens are larger than either the males or workers. They soon fly out of the nest and pair with the drones and as winter comes on the wasps kill any grubs which remain, and, growing sleepy and dull, die themselves, leaving only the queen-wasps to sleep till next spring. Then if you know where there is an old nest you can dig it carefully out and see the long tunnel in the bank, along which the wasps went in, so that no one might know where their nest was.

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