CHAPTER XI 



THE EUMENES 



A WASP-LIKE garb of motley black and yellow; a 

 slender and graceful figure; wings not spread out flat, 

 when resting, but folded lengthwise in two; the abdo- 

 men a sort of chemist's retort, which swells into a gourd 

 and is fastened to the thorax by a long neck, first 

 distending into a pear, then shrinking to a thread; a 

 leisurely and silent flight; lonely habits. There we 

 have a summary sketch of the Eumenes. My part of 

 the country possesses two species: the larger, Eumenes 

 Amedei, Lep., measures nearly an inch in length; the 

 other, Eumenes pomiformis, Fabr., 1 is a reduction of the 

 first to the scale of one-half. 



Similar in form and coloring, both possess a like 

 talent for architecture; and this talent is expressed in 

 a work of the highest perfection which charms the most 

 untutored eye. Their dwelling is a masterpiece. The 

 Eumenes follow the profession of arms, which is 



1 1 include three species promiscuously under this one name, that 

 is to say, Eumenes pomiformis, Fabr., E. bipunctis, Sauss., and 

 E., dubius, Sauss. As I did not distinguish between them in my 

 first investigations, which date a very long time back, it is not 

 possible for me to ascribe to each of them its respective nest. But 

 their habits are the same, for which reason this confusion does not 

 injuriously affect the order of ideas in the present chapter. 

 Author's Note. 



202 



