20 Riley — Premhntial Address. 



Wasps, having, as with bees and ants, three forms — males, 

 females, and workers or neuters; and the solitary species, in 

 which only females and males occur. 



The common Bald-faced Hornet {Vespa maculaUt) is a familiar 

 example of the first-named group. It constructs remarkable 

 nests of various patterns, of a gray, paper-like material, and 

 suspended to the branches of trees and shrubs, or to the rafters 

 of houses. In the second group, on the contrary, the species con- 

 struct cells or nests, consisting usually of single cells, of sand or 

 mud, in protected situations ; store them with insect food for 

 the larvae, and then abandon them altogether. The former — 

 " natural paper-makers from the beginning of time," as Harris 

 properly styles them — -have always done what man, with all his 

 boasted superiority, has only in recent times learned to do; viz.. 

 make paper of wood. They resort for this purpose to such 

 woody surfaces as have long been exposed to and bleached by 

 the action of the elements. With their powerful mandibles they 

 tear off minute filaments and chew them into a fine pulp, which 

 they afterward spread into a thin sheet of strong, water-proof 

 paper, out of which they construct their nests. These nests are 

 of two kinds, one made by the true Vespas, as in the case of the 

 Bald-faced Hornet just alluded to. Here the outer covering 

 forms a more or less regular globose body, with a single circular 

 orifice at the bottom, the combs being arranged within this cover- 

 ing in horizontal tiers or stories. In the second category we 

 have the nests of the wasps belonging to the genus Polistes, 

 which are more particularly known by the name of paper wasps. 

 Here the nest has no outer envelope, and is usually limited to a 

 single tier of cells suspended by one or more peduncles or short 

 stems. Thay are usually attached in the open air to the branchs 

 of trees, or are fastened to the underside of the rafters of porches, 

 etc., garrets being favorite places for their construction. Some 

 of the hornets, such as the "yellow -jackets,'"' are found occupying 

 the deserted nests of mice, suspending the tiers of cells 

 from the ceiling and lining the burrow with a layer of woody 

 paper. The burrows are enlarged from time to time as the 

 growth 0^ the colony requires additional space, and in late 

 autumn are often found large enough to fill a bushel measure, 

 containing sometimes from 15,000 to 20,000 cells. In all these 

 cases the tiers of cells are attached to each other or to other sup- 



