Insect Geometry 



nest as a whole shows a nippled surface en- 

 crusted with broken flint. Each nipple cor- 

 responds with a cell, which may always be 

 known by its amphora-like mouth, a part 

 which is not misshapen, because it has been 

 fashioned without impediment. In the ab- 

 sence of this certificate of origin, we should 

 hesitate before recognizing the work of an 

 expert dome-builder in the shapeless blob. 



E. unguicidata does worse. After build- 

 ing, on some big stone, a group of cells 

 which, in shape, ornamental encrustation 

 and bell-mouthed neck, rival those of E. 

 Amadei, she buries the whole under a layer 

 of mortar. She imitates the Chalicodoma 

 and the Pelopaeus, who, for reasons of do- 

 mestic safety, follow up artistic daintiness 

 with the uncouthness of the fortress. In- 

 spired by a system of aesthetics which no- 

 thing is able to evade, both insects begin by 

 creating beauty; dominated by the fear of 

 danger, they end by creating ugliness. 



Other Eumenes, on the contrary, of 

 smaller size, build cells which are always 

 isolated and which often have the twig of a 

 shrub for a support. The structure is a 

 cupola, similar to those already mentioned, 

 and, like them, provided with a graceful 

 neck, but without the gravel mosaic. The 

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