188 Mr. Newport ow the Habits and Structure 



solved, but many remnants of the membrane floater! on the surface 

 of the water. The experiment was repeated with great care, and 

 the result in each instance was precisely the same. I have not yet 

 examined a piece of comb immcdiatelij after it lias been formed, 

 but, from the results of these experiments, am inclined to believe 

 that new comb as well as old will always be found to contain a 

 membrane in each cell, made by the bee herself, before the cell is 

 finished, the use of which probably is to give additional strength 

 to the wax, and to the whole comb. Dr. Bevan and others have 

 remarked, that before the cells are finished the bees give them 

 additional strength by thickening their edges " and covering their 

 whole surface with a 'peculiar kind of varnish, which they collect 

 for the purpose." It is probable that the varnish noticed is, in 

 fact, this lining membrane. This is a subject of considerable 

 interest, but it is not without its parallel in the economy of other 

 species. The mason bee plasters round the interior of its cell 

 with a secretion of its own, before it collects pollen and honey as 

 food for the future larva ; and the sand bees, Colletes, as is known 

 to every Entomologist, form in their burrows a succession of 

 transparent, membranous, cylindrical cases, which are stored with 

 pollen before the eggs are deposited in them. This is an addi- 

 tional circumstance in support of the opinion, that each cell of the 

 honey-comb is lined with a distinct membrane. 



Of the Hornet. — The proceedings of the hornet, Vespa crabro, 

 in constructing its nest, are somewhat different from those of the 

 hive bee. The whole base of a cell appears always to be com- 

 pleted by the insect before the sides are begun to be raised upon 

 it. On the 24-th of June, 1828, I discovered a hornet's nest that 

 had just been commenced between the lining and weather-boarding 

 of the side of an out-house, in such a situation as enabled me, on 

 removing a portion of the latter, to examine the interior of the 

 nest, and watch the proceedings of the insect. The nest of the 

 hornet, like that of the wasp, is always founded by a single indi- 

 vidual, and is commenced by the formation of two or three cells 

 attached to a pedicle. The nest in question was formed of only 

 one comb of hexagonal cells, arranged in a circular horizontal 

 plane, suspended by its pedicle. There were fifteen cells, either 

 completed or in different stages of forwardness, and also the basis 

 of five others, on the edges of the comb, just commenced. The 

 whole was inclosed by an outer wall or covering, about the size 

 of a large orange, but open on the under surface. In each of the 

 four middle cells was a large larva, apparently about four or five 

 days old, and in the outer cells either a newly hatched larva or 



