4o6 AN ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY. 



protected combs in the shelter of a projecting ledge of rock, or 

 under the eaves of houses, or even under fence boards ; while yet 

 others build their globe-shaped structures openly upon bushes, 

 and these are usually termed " hornets." The material of which 

 the nest is composed is a sort of wood-pulp paper. The insect 

 scrapes a small bit of wood-fibre from an exposed surface, mixes 

 it with saliva, kneads it into shape, and then, by means of the 

 mandibles and forelegs, spreads it in a thin layer and attaches it 

 to the surface at which the nest is to be started. Layer after 

 layer of fibre is added in this way until the nest is completed. 



The enormous structures made by 

 Fig. 462. ^ j.j^g "white-faced" wasp, Vespa 



maculata, are excellent examples of 

 what can be accomplished by num- 

 bers and persistence. As to feed- 

 ing habits, these social wasps are 

 usually predaceous, but they are 

 also fond of sweets, and may often 

 be found on flowers, gathering 

 „,, ., /,,,,-. , , honey, or on ripe fruits, sucking 



White-faced wasp, I esfia »iarn/a/a. J ' 1 ' ^ 



their juices. We also find them 

 occasionally in butcher-shops, and they have a fondness for 

 chewing into raw meat and lapping the blood. They feed their 

 larvae honey and other plant juices, and also the masticated frag- 

 ments of insects. That is to say, they prepare the animal food 

 by first chewing into a pulp before feeding it. 



Two types of these wasps are common throughout the United 

 States, — the first rather slender, with a spindle-shaped abdomen, 

 and usually a more or less red-brown color, often marked with 

 yellow. These belong to the genus Polistes, and they build their 

 paper combs openly, — that is, without any covering, and sus- 

 pended by a single, short, central stalk. The colonies rarely 

 become very large, but they are very numerous in most parts of 

 the country. 



The true " wasps," or members of the genus Vespa, have the 

 abdomen cylindrical, squarely cut off where it joins the thorax, 

 and are very often contrastingly marked with white or yellow, 

 occasionally with red or brown on a black ground. These are 

 the "hornets" and " yelluw-jackets," and their colonies some- 



