76 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



suspended often in the talipot-tree at the height of seventy 

 feet. The appearance of these nests thus elevated, with the 

 larger leaves of the tree, used by the natives as umbrellas 

 and tents, waving over them, is very singular. Though no 

 species of European wasp is a storer of honey, yet this rule 

 does not apply to certain species of South America. In the 

 * Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for June, 1841, 

 will be found a detailed account, with a figure, of the 

 pendent nest of a species termed by Mr. A. White Myraptera 

 sGutellaris. The external case consists of stout cardboard 

 covered with conical knobs of various sizes. The entrances 

 are artfully protected by pent-roofs from the weather and 

 heavy rains ; and are toi-tuous, so as to render the ingress 

 of a moth or other large insect difficult. Internally are 

 fourteen combs, exclusive of a globular mass, the nucleus 

 of several circular combs, which are succeeded by others of 

 an arched form — that is, constituting segments of circles. 

 Many of the uppermost combs were found to have the cells 

 filled with honey of a brownish-red colour, but which had 

 lost its flavour. After entering into some minute details, 

 Mr. A. AVhite makes the following interesting observations : 

 — " Azara, in the account of his residence in various parts 

 of South America, mentions the fact of several icasps of these 

 countries collecting honey. The Baron Wachenaer, who 

 edited the French translation of this work, published in 

 1809, thought that the Spanish traveller, who was unskilled 

 in entomology, had made some mistake with regard to the 

 insects, and regarded the so-called wasps as belonging to 

 some hee of the genus of which Apis amaltliea is the type 

 (MeUpona). Latreille (who afterwards corrected his mistake) 

 also believed that they must be referred to the genera 

 MeUpona or Trigona — insects which in South America take 

 the place of our honey-bee. These authors were afterwards 

 clearly convinced of the correctness of Azara's observations, 

 by the circumstance of M. Auguste de St. Hilaire finding 

 near the river Uruguay an oval grey-coloured nest of a 

 papery consistence, like that of the European wasps, 

 suspended from the branches of a small shrub about a foot 

 from the ground: he and two other attendants partook of 



