i?6 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



architect careful to proportion the thickness and con- 

 sequently the strength of his walls, to the magnitude 

 of the building about to be erected. This method of 

 enlargement of the nest-cover obtains among the 

 species sylvestris, Norwegica, and rufa. In the case 

 of the subterranean dwellers, vulgaris and Germanica, 

 and among the hornets, the mode consists not in the 

 superposition of layers, hollow pieces of material are 

 formed, blisters, as it were, are raised all over the plain 

 outer surface as left by the queen when she renounced 

 her architectural labours. Blister after blister is 

 placed one above the other, and, as in the former 

 instance, the underlying matter is cut away nearly as 

 quickly as the fresh formation is added. The 

 material removed is not discarded as useless, but 

 worked up afresh ; as a fact, this is performed by the 

 act of removal. Subsequently it serves both for new 

 cells and for additions to the outside. The alteration 

 of a subterranean dwelling involves the greatest toil, 

 for besides the changes necessary in the envelope 

 plainly the area of the nest-cavity must be enlarged. 

 Care is always taken to keep free a clear, though 

 tiny, space between the papery-shell and the earth 

 interior. 



The fabrication of the papery sheets that together 

 make up the powerful envelope is a perfect work of 

 art. One is astonished at their resemblance to our 

 own gray paper. This paper is simply thinner, more 

 silky, more smooth and glossy ; it offers great analogy 

 to papers made by island savages from the bark of 

 trees. When a wasp bears a fibrous ball of paste to 

 the nest, and adds it to that piece of the covering on 



