184 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



it to uphold considerable weight. At the end of the 

 petiole usually a single cell, its mouth directed down- 

 wards, is fixed ; the rest of the nest consists of a double 

 series of lateral cells until the group is complete. 

 Those nearest to the foot-stalk are the largest and 

 most perfect, since they are finished first; towards the 

 other extremity the cells gradually diminish in size, 

 and at that point they are only just begun. As a 

 whole they are well-defined hexagons, their colour is 

 often a rather dark yellowish brown, preventing them 

 from being conspicuous in spite of their curious pro- 

 jection. The cell-masses are small, so that the societies 

 must be restricted. Possibly each group is the work 

 of a single female, who confines herself to raising her 

 own progeny which escape as soon as they are hatched. 

 The nests are frequently numerous in the same spot, 

 and each society may set up a number of separate 

 homes in the vicinity of one another. Perhaps in this 

 genus, as among the Polistes, workers are wanting 

 (see Fig. 30). 



The architecture of Apo'ica may be compared with 

 that of Polistes. If one were to impaste a great 

 canopy-like mass of cellular matter to the dorsal face 

 of a circular cell-group of Polistes, then one would 

 have a nest of Apo'ica. The comb opens downwards, 

 its upper surface is convex, not that the cells group 

 themselves in a cluster round a central point, a mode 

 often giving birth to convexity of surface, the canopy 

 or ceiling is itself hemispherical, and to its inferior 

 face the group is attached. The cells are of about 

 equal length, thus the thickness of the nest is almost 

 the same throughout, and the undersurface is generally 



