v SOCIAL HOMES 199 



honey. The Chiguana of Azara, it would seem, is 

 identical with Polybia scutellaris. At the time of 

 publication Azara's statement was not believed, so 

 opposed was the habit that he claimed for this insect 

 to the known actions of wasps. He and his men ate 

 from the Chiguana's store, and it proved deleterious. 

 St. Hilaire, a subsequent traveller, speaks of two 

 South American honey-wasps. The honey of one 

 was white and innocuous, that qf the other was reddish- 

 brown and poisonous. The good honey was in an 

 oval light-coloured nest, of thin papery material, 

 totally different from the paper of Myrapetra, and 

 was observed by Hilaire on a small bush near 

 Uruguay, at a distance of only about a foot from the 

 ground. This wasp has been described as Lecheguana. 

 Probably under the term Lecheguana, or Chiguana as 

 Azara has it, the inhabitants of America confound 

 many wasps of similar kinds, and it is rather a 

 generic title for all honey wasps than for one species 

 in particular. 



That honey is contained in these nests there can be 

 no question ; the fact is proved beyond doubt by 

 those in the British Museum. At the same time it is 

 evident that the papery material is extremely ill- 

 suited for the retention of the liquid, which has pene- 

 trated and dropped from layer to layer of comb and 

 materially damaged the cells. A nest of P. scutellaris 

 containing honey was presented to the Museum about 

 thirty years ago. In no part of it were brood, nor 

 did it appear to have been recently in use for the 

 purpose of hatching. Can it be possible that it was a 

 deserted nest, adopted by a society of wasps merely 



