SOCIAL-WASPS. 63 



We have ourselves frequently seen wasps employed in 

 procuring their materials in this manner, and have always 

 observed that they shift from one part to another more than 

 once in preparing a single load, — a circumstance which we 

 ascribe entirely to the restless temper peculiar to the whole 

 order of hymenopterous insects. Eeaumur found that the 

 wood which they preferred was such as had been long ex- 

 posed to the weather, and is old and dry. White of Sel- 

 borne, and Kirby and Spence, on the contrary, maintain 

 tliat wasps obtain their paper from sound timber, hornets 

 only from that which is decayed.* Our own observations, 

 however, confirm the statement of Eeaumur with respect 

 to wasps, as, in every instance which has fallen under our 

 notice, the wood selected was very much we.athered : and 

 in one case an old oak post in a garden at Lee, in Kent, 

 half destroyed by dry-rot, was seemingly the resort of all 

 the wasps in the vicinity. In another case, the deal bond 

 in a brick wall, which had been built thirty years, is at this 

 moment TJune, 1829) literally striped with the gnawings 

 of wasps, which we have watched at the work for hours 

 together. (J. E.) 



The bundles of ligneous fibres thus detached, are mois- 

 tened before being used, with a glutinous liquid, which 

 causes them to adhere together, and are then kneaded into 

 a sort of paste, or papier mache. Having prepared some of 

 this material, the mother wasp begins first to line with it 

 the roof of her chamber, for wasps always build downwards. 

 The round ball of fibres which she has previously kneaded 

 up with glue, she now forms into a leaf, walking back- 

 wards, and spreading it out with her mandibles, her tongue, 

 and her feet, till it is as thin almost as tissue paper. 



One sheet, however, of such paper as this would form 

 but a fragile ceiling, quite insufficient to prevent the earth 

 from falling down into the nest. The wasp, accordingly, is 

 not satisfied with her work till she has spread fifteen or 

 sixteen layei*s one above the other, rendering the wall alto- 

 gether nearly two inches thick. The several layers are not 



* Reaumur, vol. vi. bottom of pa,2:e 182 ; Hist, of Sell), ii. 228 ; and 

 lutrod. to Eutomol. i. 504, 5th edition. 



