148 HYMENOPTERA. 



In Vespa, the Paper Wasp, the ligula is squarish, with the 

 paraglossai nearly as long as the tongue, the outer maxillary 

 lobes rounded oval, half as long as the palpi, and the labial 

 maxilhe are scarcely longer than the tongue. The abdomen 

 is broad at base, acutely conical. The nests are either with or 

 without a papery covering, supported by a short pedicel. 



Such females as have hybernated, begin to makfe their 

 cells in the early part of summer. Smith states that the soli- 

 tary female wasp " begins by making three saucer-shaped re- 

 ceptacles, in each of which she deposits an egg ; she then 

 proceeds to form other similar -shaped receptacles, until the 

 eggs first deposited are hatched and the young grubs require a 

 share of her attention. From the circular bases she now be- 

 gins to raise her hexagonal cells, not building them up at once, 

 but from time to time raising them as the young grubs grow. 

 (Proc. Ent. Soc, London, 1858, p. 35.) 



Waterliouse states that the cells formed by the solitary fe- 

 male early in the season appear " to be built entirely of glisten- 

 ing, whitish, silk-like threads which I have little doubt are a 

 secretion from the insect, all the threads being firmly attached 

 together as if they had originally been of a glutinous nature." 

 The cells formed later in the season by the workers, differ 

 in consisting of masticated rotten wood. "Almost simultane- 

 ously Avith the eomuiencement of the cells, it ai)pears that the 

 nest-covering is cominonced. At first it has the appearance of 

 a miniature umbrella, serving to shelter the rudimentary cells." 

 I'late 5, Fig. 3, shows a group of cells surrounded by one 

 layer of paper, and the beginning of another. As the nest 



grows larger the cells are ar- 

 ranged in galleries, supported by 

 pedicels, and the number of 

 layers in the outside covering 

 greatly increases in numl)er. 



While our common and largest 



species, Vesjxt, maculata Linn. 



(Fig. 83), and the j^ellow wasp, 



Fig- 83. Y, are»ar/« Fabr., build papery 



nests consisting of several galleries, with the mouth of the cells 



directed downwards, the East Indian species, V. oriantalis^ 



