432 



AMERICAN FORI.Sl'RY 



ensured by there 

 being incorporated 

 into it the secretion 

 of the salivary 

 glands of the insect. 

 It is with this 

 material that the 

 common b r o vv n 

 wasp builds such a 

 nest as shown in 

 Figure 1. I photo- 

 graphed this speci- 

 men in the woods 

 near Cabin John 

 Bridge in Mary- 

 land, a few miles 

 from W'ashington. 

 Only three or four 

 wasps were the 

 proprietors here, 

 and this structure 

 was selected be- 

 cause it was small 

 and showed so 

 well the hexagonal 

 paper cells for the 

 young. Moreover, 

 the nest was in a 

 vertical position, 

 which is by no 

 means usual ; as a 

 rule they lie in the 

 horizontal plane 

 when fi n i s h e d . 

 Along the old 

 Georgetown Canal 

 I saw recently, far 

 up in a dogwood 



A TYPICAL WASPS' NEST 



Fig. 3, — Another species of thtse brown wasps build a larpe nest, of a form shown in this cut; they'are 

 abundant in many sections^of the Middle Atlantic States, but are not usually seen until the leaves are 

 all off the trees in early wniter, at which time both young and old have all departed. In form, they 

 are roughly circular or subcircular in ou line; unhoused, and made up of a large number of cylindrical 

 paper tubes, closely packed together and united in such a manner as to successfully resist tearing apart. 

 This nest in its posterior aspect, which is concave, is united to a twig or shrub by a single, tough, paper 

 pedicle, usually situated above the middle of the nest. Ihis cut is a reduced reproduction of one of 

 these structures which I photographed natural size, having collected it on the 5th of December, 1916. 

 in southern Maryland. It was in a tree about thirty feet above the ground; it measured about 6X6 

 inches, and was made of over two hundred cells. Sometimes these nests are built in the tallest trees 

 in the forest, and sometimes in a vine or shrub not five feet above the ground. Occasionally we find 

 two or more in the same tree. 



tree, one of the 

 largest — indeed the very largest — specimen of the i)aper 

 wasps' nest that I had ever seen. It certainly was a foot 

 and a half in diameter, and covered with a very large 

 colony of the insects. At this time they were busy dejjosit- 

 ing the single egg the female lays at the bottom of each cell. 

 Then the aperture of each is sealed over with a paper, 

 which I have always noticed is some four or five shades 

 paler than that of which the nest is made. Several 

 attempts to collect this fine specimen were failures, as the 

 wasps were then in a very combative frame of mind. It 

 is firmly attached to the twigs by its usual single, strong 

 pedicle, far up in the top of the tree. Unlike the nest 

 shown in Figure 1, it is tipped at an angle of forty-five 

 degrees. In New F.ngland these brown wasps often build 

 in the stone walls surrounding farm fields, or under fence- 

 rails, and elsewhere. 



The form of the nest is more or less circular in out- 

 line, though I have collected those which were oval. or even 

 a bit triangular or oblong in shape. I have never met 

 with one in which the openings of the cells faced upwards ; 

 if thev were so built, the rain might get into the cells, and 



destroy the young 

 as well as the nest. 

 A far more 

 elaborate nest than 

 the one just de- 

 scribed is con- 

 structed by the 

 paper hornet, an 

 insect also \x'ry 

 abundant in the 

 eastern United 

 States; these are 

 frequently large 

 enough to fill a 

 bushel basket. 

 Such a nest is 

 shown in Figure 2, 

 and I have cut out 

 with a knife the 

 near side of it. in 

 order to expose the 

 three tiers of nests 

 inside, each of 

 which is built pre- 

 cisely as the brown 

 wasps build theirs. 

 They are arranged 

 one above the 

 other, the whole 

 having a paper 

 structure built 

 around it, usually 

 top-shaped in out- 

 line, with a hole 

 below and to one 

 side, for the insects 

 to go in and out 

 of as occasion re- 

 quires. This spe- 

 cies often construct their nests under the eaves of 

 various buildings, in the country or well within the 

 city limits. In the forests they build in trees or 

 shrubs, sometimes so close to the ground as to be in 

 contact with it. while at other times as high up as fifty 

 feet or more. The smallest nest of this hornet that I 

 ever met with was no bigger than a boy's peg-top. 



.\11 of these paper nests, of both hornets and wasps, 

 are composed of the same material, and constructed in the 

 same manner. The ])aper, being manufactured from wood 

 pulp, is quite durable, tough, and strong. If a nest be 

 ke])t in a dry place indoors, it will last for ages and exhibit 

 no sign of breaking down ; one that I collected many years 

 ago is still on the shelf of one of my bookcases. Brown 

 wasps built that one ; and the most interesting feature it 

 presents is that it is a half circle in form, the cells on the 

 long diameter being the deepest and largest, while those 

 around the perii)hery are .so very small and shallow as to 

 be entirely useless, beyond finishing off the marginal cur- 

 vature of the structure. Quite a few other insects also 

 construct interesting forms of paper nests. 



