8o ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



a few grains of earth, adding little quantity to little 

 quantity until a pellet is cemented, the size of small 

 shot. The ball of mortar being formed, is borne off 

 in her jaws and fixed on the place determined. When 

 she deems sufficient material laid she mixes all the 

 earth, and completes a cell about an inch long and 

 half an inch broad. She enters and anxiously smooths 



FIG. 7. Clay nest of a Solitary Wasp (Eumenes) in early stage ; from Natal. 



it, she stocks it with a cake of pollen and honey, and 

 lays an egg in the midst, then it is walled over. 

 Other cells are similarly erected close by, up to the 

 number of twelve or more. Their order of deposition 

 is not regular ; they may be parallel to the founda- 

 tion, perpendicular to it, or at every conceivable 

 angle of inclination. The building is not yet 

 finished, for the group receives a sort of roof or 



