376 



THE INSECT WORLD. 



paper bouquets, composed of from twenty to thirty cells, grouped 

 in circle. 



The Card-making Wasp of Cayenne ( Chartergus niduians, Fig. 354) 

 is a consummate artist. Its nest represents a sort of box or bag, 

 made of a substance resembling cardboard, so fine and so white 



Fig. 353. — Nest of Polistcs gallica. 



that the best worker in that material would be deceived by it. This 

 nest has only one single hole at its base ; each of the combs it 

 contains is likewise pierced by a hole in its centre, to afford a 

 passage to the wasps. In an architectural 

 point of view, the card-making wasp is almost 

 superior to the bee, for the latter does not 

 huild its house, it on\y furnishes it, as Latreille 

 remarks with truth. The Brazilian species 

 of Chartergus, which the inhabitants call 

 Lecheguana,* manufactures a honey, the use 

 of which is not without danger, as it occasions 

 vertigo and sharp pains in the stomach. The 

 naturalist, Auguste Saint-Hilaire, during his 

 sojourn in Brazil, himself experienced ill 

 effects from eating it. 

 There are, moreover, solitary wasps, which make their cells in 

 holes which they scoop out in the ground, or in the stalks of certain 

 plants. In the adult state these live on honey ; but their larvae are 

 carnivorous, and the female is obliged to bring them living insects. 

 The commonest of these solitary wasps belong to the genus Odynerus. 



t'ig- 354- 

 The Card-making Wasp 

 {Chartergus nidiilans). 



* Hence the scientific name, Chartergus lechegzmna. — Ed. 



