II 



VESPIDAE WASPS' NESTS 



8l 



which is probably chiefly glandular products. Our British 

 Yespidae number only eight species, all belonging to the one 

 genus Vespa, and yet they exhibit three different modes of 

 nidification. Vespa v-u/</<t,-ix, V. germanica and V. rt/fa i'mm 

 subterranean nests, while V. arlorca, V. sylrcstris and V. norvegica 

 suspend their habitations from the branches of trees, bushes, or 

 strong annual plants. Vespa crabro, the hornet, usually adopts 

 an intermediate course, forming its nest above ground, but in a 

 spot where it is protected and concealed. 

 The favourite habitat of this formidable 

 Insect is the interior of an old tree, but 

 the hornet will sometimes avail itself of 

 the protection of a thatched roof. Both 

 it and other arboreal species are said, 

 however, to occasionally make subter- 

 ranean nests. It is ascertained that 

 V. austriaca, the eighth species, is an 

 inquiline. 



De Saussure, 1 the monographer of the 

 social wasps, classifies them according to 

 the architecture of their nests. He estab- 

 lishes three groups: (1) Stelocyttares, in 

 which the layers of comb are not con- 

 nected with the envelope, but are sup- 

 ported by pillars made by the wasps (Fig. 

 31); (2) Poecilocyttares, an unsatisfac- 

 tory group of which the chief character- 

 istics appear to be that the nest is always 

 covered by an envelope, and the comb is 



supported by an object such as the branch 



f -i i-i+i i FIG. 32. Nest of 



of a tree, round, or on, which the envelope T1 enve ] ope part ] v 



cut open ; o, entrance. 

 (After de Saussure.) 



is placed (Fig. 32); (3) Phragmocyttares, 



in which the layers of comb are supported, 



in part or entirely, by the envelope of the nest, communication 



being effected by a hole in each layer of the comb (Fig. 33). 



de Saussure's classification is far from satisfactory. There are 



many social wasps that construct nests destitute of any proper 



envelope ; as an example of this, we may mention, the species of 



1 Monographie des gutpes societies, Geneva, 1853-1858, pp. cc. and 356, ] 

 i.-xxxvii. 



VOL. VI G ' 



