134 Mr. F. Smith on the Construction of 
single individual, I still think the exhibition of the different 
methods adopted by wasps in building their combs cannot fail 
to prove interesting. 
It must not be supposed that all bees, or that all wasps, are 
equally skilful in constructing hexagonal cells; such is in fact far 
from being the case; some species, like unskilful masons, produce 
very unfinished or rustic work. This observation applies to wax- 
working bees, as well as to paper- and pasteboard-working wasps. 
The cells of Trigona are rude and unskilful in construction, when 
compared with the elegant and highly-finished structures erected 
by the hive-bee. Amongst the Vespid@, the wasps belonging to 
the extensive genus Polistes, that construct cells of a papery con- 
sistency, are rude and unskilful in their work, when compared 
with those belonging to the genus Chartergus, which construct 
cells of stiff cardboard. 
Wax is the material of which all honey-bees construct their 
cells; it is of a soft plastic nature, and is capable of being 
moulded, cut or scraped into any shape with ease; not so the 
pasteboard of wasps. The material of which the paper or 
cardboard is composed varies in different species; some use 
scrapings of sound timber, this is the case with the Vespa 
Norvegica; the nests of this wasp have a strength and durability 
adapting them for exposure to the vicissitudes of weather, being 
suspended to the branches of trees and shrubs; the hornet and 
other wasps, on the contrary, select decayed wood, consequently 
their nests are exceedingly fragile, and would soon perish if 
exposed. Many exotic wasps use materials of a vegetable nature, 
scrapings of the stems of plants; such is the material selected by 
pasteboard-working species ; so firm and strong is the outer case, 
as well as the cells, of these wasps, that it is a difficult matter to 
tear them asunder. A few species build their pensile habitations 
entirely of clay, some nests being as much as eight or nine inches 
in diameter, and of an oblong, or egg-shaped, ani: a specimen 
of an unfinished comb I shall Thy before you. 
We will now examine a little into the differences observable in 
the architecture of bees and wasps. Honey-bees, as you all 
know, build double combs, and these depend from the roof 
of the hive; the cells are consequently in a horizontal position. 
Trigone (stingless honey-bees) construct single combs; they are 
arranged horizontally, precisely like those of the common wasp, 
the mouths of the cells being consequently downwards; the 
combs, like those of the wasp, are supported by short columns of 
wax, or a material closely resembling wax, and of an equally soft 
