the wasp; a genus of insects belonging to the order of hymenoptera. The mouth consists of two jaws without any proboscis; the superior wings are plaited; the eyes are lunar; and there is a sharp sting in the tail. There are 159 species; only 3 of which are natives of Britain, the crabro, the vulgaris, and the coarctata.

1. Crabro, the hornet. It has tawny antennae; the segments of the abdomen are black on the anterior part and yellow on the posterior, with two black spots on each. Its length is an inch; it builds in hollow trees. Its cases or combs are composed of a substance like coarse paper, or ruffly parchment. It is very voracious, devouring other insects, and even bees.

2. Vulgaris, the common wasp. The male has seven yellow segments of the abdomen, with a black triangle on each; the head is yellow, and the antennae long. The upper lip of the female is yellow, the antennae short; there are six segments of the abdomen with two lateral black spots on each.

M. Reaumur and Dr Derham agree in distinguishing three sorts of wasps; viz. the queens or females, the males, and the common labouring wasps, called mules, which, according to Reaumur, are neither males nor females, and consequently barren. The queens, of which there is a great number, are much longer in the body, and larger than any other wasp; they have a large heavy belly, corresponding in size to the prodigious quantity of eggs with which they are charged. The males are less than the queens, but longer and larger than the common wasps, which are the smallest of the species: they have no wings, with which both the queens and common wasps are furnished. There are in one nest two or three hundred males, and as many females; but their number depends on the size of the nest; and Dr Derham observed, that the males were bred, or at least mostly reared, in the cells or partings, between the combs, next to the uppermost cell. The antennae or horns of the male wasps are longer and larger than those of either of the other sorts; but the chief difference, says Dr Derham, consists in their parts of generation, which are altogether different from those of other wasps.

The mules are the labourers belonging to a nest, and are employed in procuring materials for the nests and in constructing them, and also in furnishing the other wasps, and the young, with provisions.

At the beginning of winter, the wasps destroy all the eggs, and all the young ones without exception: all the mules and males, which have been employed in this work, being unfurnished with provisions, perish; and none survive except some few females, which, according to Reaumur, were fecundated in October, and raise a new colony in the beginning of spring.

In spring a new commonwealth is founded by a single female impregnated during the autumn, and that has weathered out the severity of the winter. It digs a hole in a dry foil, contrives itself a sinuous inlet, or else it takes up with the dwelling place of a mole, where it hastily builds a few cells and deposits its eggs. Within the space of 20 days, they have gone through the different states of larva, chrysalids, and turned to wasps. Nature all wise provides for every thing. The mule-wasps are the only ones that labour at laying the foundation of the republic. The first eggs that are hatched prove to be neuter-wasps. No sooner are they come into existence, but they fall to work, enlarge the hole, and go about upon wood, lattice-work, and window sashes, in search of materials for building. With their teeth they cut, hack, and tear off small fibres of wood, which they moisten with a liquor they dig for, and then convey them to the work-shop. Other labourers are in waiting for them, who with those materials set about the construction of the wasp-nest, which is commonly round, and made of materials resembling fine paper. The common covering of it, which is formed of several leaves or layers, with intermediate spaces, is pierced by two holes at a distance from one another, one of which is used for the entrance of the wasps, and the other only for their exit. The space within this covering is cut by a number of horizontal planes, with intervals between them of the size of about half an inch; they are suspended from one another by ligaments, and attached to the covering by their edges; they all have hexagonal cells in their lower surface.

The eggs of the wasp are of an oblong form, and resemble those of a common fly, but they are larger; they are always fastened to the angles of a cell, never to the sides of it. They are usually placed single; it is very rare to find two in one cell; and, if they are laid so, it seems that only one succeeds; for there is never found more than one worm in a cell.

The heads of all the nymphs are turned toward the centre of the comb, and their tails go obliquely downward toward the base of the cell. They are continually seen opening their mouths, and moving their forelegs, seeming ever hungry, and impatiently waiting for food from their parents. The cells are left open till the nymph is at its full growth; then the wasps cover it over with a thin lid, under which the worm undergoes its transformation; and as soon as it is arrived at the wasp-state, it cuts its way through this thin cover, and comes to work with the rest. The elder brothers, or first-hatched insects, take amazing care of those born after them, by proportioning their food to the delicacy of their stomach. First, it consists of the juice of fruits and meats; afterwards it is the carcases of insects. The caterpillars provide for the labourers. Each one takes his own portion; there is no dispute, no fighting. The republic grows daily more numerous, living in profound peace. Every individual, as soon as he has acquired sufficient strength, flies away to the fields. They then become a gang of banditti; they pillage our wall-trees, break into our fruit before its maturity, dart with the fierceness of hawks upon our bees, cut their throats to possess themselves of their honey, plunder and lay waste their commonwealth, riot on the fruits of their labour, and oblige them to remove. During the period of plenty, the wasps bring all the booty to the nest, and share it amongst them. There is nothing then goes forwards but feasting, rioting, and good fellowship; but concord cannot be lasting among robbers. Towards the month of October provisions begin to run short: The neuters and males tear from their cradles the eggs, the larva, the chrysalids, and the new-born insects, without showing mercy to any. They next fight against one another. Frosts and rains throw the citizens into a state of languor, Vespasian languor, and they almost all perish, luckily for us and our bees, some few females alone excepted, which in the ensuing spring become founders of new republics.

3. Coarctata, the small wasp; has black antennae, yellow at the base; the head is black with a yellow spot between the antennae, and another at the base of the upper lip. Each segment of the abdomen is bordered with yellow. It is about half an inch long. The history, as well as the manners of this species, are the same as those of the common wasp; but their buildings are on a different construction. Their nest is fastened to the branch of a tree with a kind of band; and is in bignets from the size of an orange down to that of an egg. Wood reduced to paper is the material part of it; which if it were of a ruddy colour, might be taken for a large opening role. It is covered over with a varnish impenetrable by water. One of those nests was neither mollified nor impaired by that element.