254 INSECTA. 



pierced with a common and almost always central opening, which 

 sometimes corresponds to a series of holes which communicate with 

 the interior; the combs adhere to the parietes of the envelope, 

 whether they be in the open air or concealed in the earth or hollows 

 of trees. The figure of these structures varies according to the 

 species. 



The females commence the business alone, and lay eggs that pro- 

 duce neuters or labourers, which assist in enlarging the nest and 

 taking care of the succeeding young ones. The community is solely 

 composed of these two kinds of individuals, until the beginning of 

 autumn, at which period the young males and females make their 

 appearance. All the larvae and nymphs Avhich cannot complete their 

 ultimate metamorphosis before the month of November, are put. to 

 death and dragged from their cells by the labourers, Avhich perish 

 along with the males on the approach of winter. Some of the females 

 survive, and in the spring become the founders of a new colony. 



Wasps feed on Insects, viands of various sorts, or fruit, and nourish 

 their larvae with the juices of these substances. The latter, which on 

 account of the inferior situation of the mouths of their cells, are placed 

 w^ith their head downwards, shut themselves up and spin a cocoon, 

 when about to become nymphs. The males never work. 



In several species, that portion of the internal margin of the man- 

 dibles which is beyond the angle and terminates it, is shorter than 

 that which precedes the angle ; the middle of the anterior part of the 

 clypeus projects in a point. These species form the subgenus 



PoLisTEs, Lat., Fab.* 



Sometimes the abdomen resembles that of Eumenes, properly so 

 called, in the form of its two first annuli. Such is 



P. morio. Fab. ; G. Tatua, Cuv., Bullet, de la Soc. Philom., 

 No. VIII ; Lat., Gen. Crust, et Insect., I, xiv, 5. Entirely black 

 and glossy. Its nest forms a truncated cone like that of the 

 nidulans, but it is larger, the bottom is flat, and perforated at 

 one of its sides, and the material is coarser. It inhabits Cay-, 

 enne. 

 Sometimes the abdomen is elliptical, or borders on an oval. Such 

 is the 



P. gallica ; Vespa Gallica, L. ; Panz., Faun. Insect. Germ., 

 XLIX, 22. Rather smaller than the Vespa vulgaris ; black ; the 

 clypeus, two dots on the thorax, six lines on the scutellum, two 

 spots on the first and second rings of the abdomen, and their 

 ' superior margin, as well as that of all the others, yellow ; abdo- 

 men bordering on an oval, and with a short pedicle. Its nest 

 has the form of a little tapering bouquet, and contains from 



* Lat., Gen. Crust, et Insect., IV, p. 141. Those species, in which the abdomen 

 is oval or elliptical, narrowed at base, and sometimes even placed on a long pedicle, 

 are true Polistes. Those, in wiiich its second ring is much larger than the others, 

 and campanulate, and where the preceding frequently forms a clavate pedicle, ai-e 

 Epiponcs. The G. Tatua belongs to this division, as well as the honey-gathering 

 species from Brazil, previously mentioned, and the V, nidulans. 



