At the foot of the bell-glass, the same order of things obtains. Topographically, the position of the Wasps’-nest is perfectly well-known; but direct access has become impossible. What is to be done? After a brief hesitation, the process of digging and clearing is adopted according to ancient custom; and the difficulty is overcome. In short, the Wasp knows how to reenter her home, in spite of certain obstacles, because [[255]]the action here accomplished conforms with what is always done in similar circumstances and does not call upon the shadowy intellect for any fresh gleam of light.
But she does not know how to get out, though the difficulty remains precisely the same. Like the Turkey of the American naturalist, she is defeated by this problem: to recognize as good for going out the road which was recognized as good for going in. Impatient to escape, both bird and insect rush frantically to and fro, exhausting themselves in their striving towards the light; and neither pays any attention to the underground passage, which would so readily give them their liberty. Neither of them thinks of it, because to do so would require a little reflection and would thwart the impulse of the moment, which is to flee far into the daylight. Wasps and Turkeys alike perish, rather than improve the present by the lessons of the past, when called upon to modify their usual tactics be it ever so slightly.
The Wasp has been extolled for inventing the round Wasps’-nest and the hexagonal cell, that is to say, for rivalling our geometricians in solving the problem of the forms which are most economical of space and material. Men attribute to her ingenuity the [[256]]magnificent discovery of the surrounding wrapper cushioned with air, than which our own physicists could imagine no better provision against cold. And these superb inventions are supposed to have been achieved quite simply by the clumsy intellect which is unable to use an entrance-door as an exit-door! Such marvels inspired by such ineptitude leave me profoundly incredulous. Actions of this kind have a higher origin.
We will now open the thick envelope of the nest. The interior is occupied by the combs, or disks of cells, lying horizontally and fastened one to the other by solid pillars. The number varies. Towards the end of the season it may be as many as ten, or even more. The orifice of the cells is on the lower surface. In this strange world, the young grow, sleep and receive their food head downwards.
For service-purposes, open spaces, with rows of connecting pillars, divide the various stories. Here is a continual coming and going of nurses, busily attending to their grubs. Lateral doorways, between the outer envelope and the stack of combs, give easy access to every part. Lastly, on one side of the wrapper, the open gate of the city stands, devoid of architectural adornment, a modest [[257]]aperture lost among the thin flakes of the surrounding surface. Facing it is the underground vestibule leading to the outer world.
The cells of the lower combs are larger than those of the upper; they are set aside for the rearing of the females and the males, while those in the stories up above serve for the neuters, who are a little smaller. At first the community requires, before all else, an abundance of workers, of celibates exclusively addicted to work, who enlarge the dwelling and prepare it to become a flourishing city. Preoccupations for the future belong to a later stage. More capacious cells are constructed, some intended for the males, others for the females. According to figures which I will give later, the sexed population represents about one-third of the whole.
Let us also observe that, in a Wasps’-nest which has reached an advanced age, the cells in the upper stories have their walls gnawed right down to the base. They are ruins of which naught remains but the foundations. Useless from the moment when the community, now rich in workers, has only to be completed by the appearance of the two sexes, the tiny chambers have been pulled down; and their paper, once more reduced to pulp, has been used for the construction [[258]]of the large cells, which form the cradles of the sexed grubs. With the additional material brought from without, the demolished cells have served for building new and bigger cells; they have also perhaps provided the wherewithal for a few more scales to the outer wrapper. Sparing of her time, the Wasp does not trouble to exploit distant sources when she has available materials in the house. She knows as well as we do how to make old things into new.
In a complete nest the total number of cells amounts to thousands. Here, for example, are the statistics of one of my specimens. The combs are numbered in the order of seniority: the oldest and therefore the topmost in the stack is no. 1; the most recent and therefore the undermost is no. 10.
| Combs, in their order from top to bottom | Diameter, in inches | Number of cells | |
| 1 | 3.94 | 300 | |
| 2 | 6.28 | 600 | |
| 3 | 7.87 | 2,000 | |
| 4 | 9.45 | 2,200 | |
| 5 | 9.84 | 2,300 | |
| 6 | 10.23 | 1,300 | |
| 7 | 9.45 | 1,200 | |
| 8 | 9.06 | 1,000 | |
| 9 | 7.87 | 700 | |
| 10 | 5.12 | 300 | |
| Total … | 11,900 | cells. | |
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