510 HABITATIONS Of INSECTS. 



by Reaumur^: and for a very beautiful specimeii ap- 

 parently of the same kind (except that it contains but 

 one stage of cells), which was found in the garden at 

 East-Dale, I am indebted to the kindness of Henry 

 Thompson, eso,. of Mull. 



Another species (Vespa Parietum'^ ?) attaches its 

 small group of about twenty inverted crucible-like 

 cells to a piece of wood without any covering*^. 



But all these yield in point of singularity of struc- 

 ture to the habitation o^ Polistes nidulans, ( Vespa chaV' 

 taiia, Oliv.) a native of Cayenne, which constructs its 

 nest of a beautifully polished white and solid paste- 

 board, impenetrable by the weather. These are in 

 shape somewhat like a bell, often a foot and a half 

 long, and fixed by their upper end to the branch of a 

 tree from which they are securely suspended. Their 

 interior is composed of numerous concave horizontal 

 combs, with the openings of the cells turned down- 

 wards, fastened to the sides without any pillars, and 

 having a hole through each to admit of access to the 

 uppermost '^ 



I CLOSE my account of the habitations of insects with 

 the description of those constructed by the Termites^ 

 a tribe alluded to in former letters. 



The different species, which are numerous, build 

 nests of very various forms. Some (T. otrox and mor- 

 daXj Sm.) construct upon the ground a cylindrical 

 turret of clay about three quarters of a yard high, 

 surrounded by a projecting conical roof, so as in shape 



* vi. t. 19. f. i. ?. '» RGscl Vesp. t. T. f. 8. 



* Robcl il. viii. 30. " Rcaimi. vi. 224. 



