WASP ARCHITECTURE 137 



tropics. There are a good many species 

 scattered over the world that are not repre- 

 sented in North America at all. Some 

 build enormous nests with a hard, crust- 

 like covering ornamented with many pro- 

 jections which cause them to look like 

 monstrous fruits with rough rinds. But 

 woe to the ignorant traveller who seeks to 

 possess himself of this strange tropical 

 fruit ! 



A South American species builds a 

 bag-like nest several feet long and 

 crowded with tens of thousands of cells, 

 the whole encased in a hard rind-like 

 covering. 



Wasps seem to make their nests accord- 

 ing to the circumstances of their lives. In 

 India, where the dry season lasts the life- 

 time of the wasps, one large species of 

 Vespa builds its nest of mud. When the 

 rains come the queens hide away, ready to 

 start a new nest at the beginning of the 

 next dry season. 



