236 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 



■comb to the upper part of the cavity by means of a large mass 

 of wax made up in the form of a supporting" column. A second 

 comb is added, when required, beneath the first, to which it is 

 fixed by more or less numerous pillars or little columns, and all 

 the combs arc attached in this way, one under the other con- 

 secutively. When the nest is completed inside some cavity or 

 other, the walls of which protect the whole sufificiently, the insects 

 only make coverings to those parts which are more or less exposed, 

 but under other circumstances they take great pains to cover up 

 their nest with many envelopes. Some hornets' nests, which are 

 found under the eaves of barns or granaries, attain a very con- 

 siderable size, and are really very pretty and extraordinary objects. 

 They are wonderfully fragile, and not strongly built, like the nests 

 of the other wasps. Ordinary wasps scrape off woody fibres from 

 living trees, and form a strong tenacious paper, but the hornets 

 content themselves with rotten wood, out of which they manu- 

 facture a yellowish or russet-coloured paper, which, although very 

 pretty to the eye, is very friable, and does not possess any lasting 

 properties. The larvae of these large wasps are fleshy grubs, and 

 -are destitute of feet. They have to be fed by the Avorkers, and 

 undergo metamorphoses similar to those of the other wasps. 



The wasps which have elongated bodies and the first segment 

 of the abdomen formed into a long pedicle constitute the group 

 of the Polistites. Linnaeus, without much regard to the geographical 

 distribution of one of the species, called a very common Avasp of 

 this kind Polistes gallica. The French Polistcs is a black insect 

 decorated with yellow tints, which are also observed on the 

 antennae. It frequents open spaces in woods, and there are few 

 prettier sights than that presented in the spring-time by one of 

 the females when it is building its little nest, or is attending" to 

 its larvK. It is not difficult to observe all this, for the Polistcs 

 attach their nests to low plants and bushes. The brooms cspe- 

 •cially furnish them with straight and narrow twigs, which are 

 very convenient for their particular method of nest building. 

 The mother, after having hybernated during the winter, begins to 

 work earnestly and with great perseverance early in IMay, and com- 

 mences to construct her nest with materials which resemble those 

 used by the bush wasp. The fibres of bark are reduced into 



