^6o 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



being a continuation of the walls, there is no need for supporting pillars between 

 the combs, and the whole of the space between any two floors is entirely unobstructed. 

 Owing to the solid character of the pasteboard, and the fact that the only access 

 to the interior is by a single aperture on its lower side, the structure withstands 

 the destroying effects of tropical storms, and lasts for years. Even after the wasps 

 have done with it, it sometimes serves as a nesting-place for birds. 



The colonies of these pasteboard-wasps are continuous, like those of the honey- 

 bee ; and when the nest has reached its maximum size, the surplus product of the 

 brood combs is got rid of by sending out a swarm, with a queen, to form a new 

 community. 



Somewhat similar are the box-like nests of some of the species of polybia. One 

 of the most remarkable of these is that of the honey- wasp, ^ a native of Brazil and 

 Uruguay. It is about a couple of feet in depth with a circumference of three feet. 

 Its envelope is of thick card, but instead of being smooth the exterior is beset with 

 stout spikes, which have been supposed to be a defence against the attacks of 

 mammals that have a " sweet-tooth " — for, strange to say, this wasp stores honey 



in some of its combs. We say 

 " strange," but it is strange only in 

 contrast to the habits of most of the 

 wasps we know. Even the Insect- 

 feeding wasps are fond of sweets, but 

 they do not store honey because they 

 do not want it for winter consumption. 

 If one considers why bees store honey 

 it appears quite natural that a com- 

 munity of wasps that continues un- 

 broken for years should do the same. 

 This point of view, however, never 

 occurred to the naturalists of a hundred 

 years ago, when the existence of honey- 

 storing wasps was first brought to their notice. They rejected it as a traveller's 

 tale. The first intimation of the existence of honey-wasps was made bv the Spaniard, 

 De Azara, who had spent thirteen years in the work of a boundary delimitation 

 commission in Paraguay, at the end of the eighteenth century. His published 

 account of his travels was much criticized because of this statement, and whilst 

 some regarded it as a pure fabrication of the Munchausen class, others thouglit 

 the Insects he considered wasps were really bees. When about forty years later 

 specimens of the nests reached this country and were examined by Dr. Adam \Miite, 

 of the British Museum, dry honey was found in the combs, and the reputation 

 of De Azara was rehabilitated. Since then other tr()])ical si)ecies of the same genus 

 have been found to have the honey-storing habit. 



One reason for the suspicion attached to De Azara's statement was the fact 

 that, so far as was then known, wasps arc feeders upon animal substances, and 

 feed their grubs upon Insect remains. The sweets that attract \\-asps in the autunni 

 are not so much taken as food as an indulgence of the apjK^titc*. r>ut the norm;il 



1 P(il3'hia scutcllaiis. 



A Cardboard-Wasp. 



Another species — liliacea — of the cardboard-making wasps. This 

 example isrepresented on a scale of two and a hall times the natural 

 size. 



