316 Mr. A. White's Description of a 



corresponding number of partitions ; additional combs are 

 added to the lower part as the occupants increase in number. 

 These combs are horizontal, convex on the under side, and 

 fixed to the walls of the nest by their whole circumference. 

 The cells are hexagonal and open downwards, as in most 

 other nests constructed by the Vespidm. Each of the combs 

 has a hole near the middle, through which access is obtained 

 to the uppermost apartments. The outer entrance is by a 

 small round orifice near the middle of the under side, which 

 is more or less funnel-shaped. 



In the Museum there is a nest from the West Indies of a 

 greyish brown colour ; it is bell-shaped, and attached to the 

 branch of a tree in the same way as the other. The base, 

 however, is flat, the entrance being by a small hole close to 

 the edge : each stage of combs has a similarly situated orifice 

 to give access to the various compartments. There are five 

 straight horizontal partitions, fixed, as in the preceding, by 

 their entire circumference ; on the lowest there are no indica- 

 tions of cells, on the fourth there is a circular cell unfinished, 

 while in the three upper combs the hexagonal cells are con- 

 fined to the middle. The texture of this nest is coarse, the 

 fibres on the surface and throughout being distinctly visible. 

 It is seven and a half inches long, the base where its diameter 

 is greatest having nearly the same dimensions. 



This nest closely agrees with one from Cayenne figured 

 by Cuvier*; the constructor is a small Vespidous insect of 

 a shining black colour, with brown wings and a pedicellate 

 abdomen, which the French naturalist has named Vespa 

 Tatuaf, from its local name "I^a Mouche Tatou.^' Bur- 

 meisterij: says this insect forms a nest, having " the superior 

 surface covered with a multitude of conical knobs '/' in Cu- 

 vier's figure it is perfectly smooth. 



The insects which form these curious habitations have been 

 observed by Lacordaire§ in their native country. Their so- 

 cieties are not dissolved each year, as happens with the wasps 

 of our climates, which, on the approach of cold weather, are 

 nearly all cut ofi^. 



The nests are found in copse-wood, principally near plan- 

 tations (at least in Guiana), and are generally suspended at a 

 height of three or four feet from the ground. During the 

 rainy season, from January to the middle of June, only perfect 



* Bull, des Sc. par la Soc. Phil, n. 8. 



f The Polistes morio of Fabricius, who describes the nest from Cuvier's 

 communication. It is the Eplpona Tatua of Saint Fargeau. 

 •: Man. of Ent., transl. by Shuckard, § 296. p. 523. 

 § Introd. a I'Entom., ii. p. 508. 



