228 STRUCTURE OF WASPS* NESTS. 



notice of this trifling and common circumstance did Reaumur 

 discover the Wasp to be a paper -maker, and was enabled to 

 trace the subsequent processes of her manufacture. Had these 

 been observed sooner, our art of paper-making, as now prac- 

 tised, might have had an earlier date. The foundress, whom 

 we saw this morning, had been occupied, while settled on the 

 post, in the first or wood-rasping process of her fabrication ; 

 and on entering the hole, she no doubt carried with her a bun- 

 dle of fibres to be kneaded into paper-paste. Then, supposing 

 that the nest was in an early stage of progress, she would 

 proceed to spread a covering of this substance over the roof or 

 upper part of her excavated chamber, strengthening the same 

 with repeated layers. Her next proceedings have been thus 



described :* " Having finished the ceiling, she begins to 

 build the first terrace of her city, wliich, under its protection, 

 she suspends horizontally, and not, like the combs of a Bee- 

 hive, in a perpendicular position. The suspension of which 

 \vc speak is light and elegant compared with the more heavy 

 union of the Hive-bee's combs. It is, in fact, a hanging floor 

 or terrace, immovably secured by rods of similar material with 

 the roof, but rather stronger. The terrace itself is circular, 

 and composed of an immense number of cells made of the paper 

 already described, and almost of the same size and form as 

 those of a honey-comb, each being a perfect hexagon." These 

 cells, however, are never used as honey-pots by Wasps as 



* Insect Architecture, p. 7G. 



