FOREIGN BEES. 295 



meter., and formed of a strong hard clay, having its 

 crust or shell of about four inches in thickness. On 

 . breaking up one of these nests an operation which 

 required the aid of a hatchet it was found com- 

 posed of combs of wax filled with fine honey. The 

 bee is blackish in colour, not so taper in its shape 

 as the European insect, but nearly of the same size ; 

 less irritable, but possessed of a sting. 



The most remarkable entomological fact stated by 

 this writer, is the existence in Brazil and Paraguay 

 of a honey gathering Wasp ! When the statement 

 appeared, it was supposed by Latreille and others, 

 that, not being much versed in entomology, Azara 

 had mistaken for an individual of the wasp family 

 what was in reality one of the Melipona or Trigonis 

 genus, common in South America. More recently, 

 however, the researches of M. de St. Hilaire have 

 confirmed the accuracy of the Spaniard ; and it seems 

 now an established fact that the insect provincially 

 named Lecheguana, belonging to the genus Vespa 

 (Polistes of Latreille), produces honey of a very ex- 

 cellent kind, which it stores up in cells for use during 

 the season of the repose of vegetable life, and which 

 differs from that produced by the bees only in being 

 wholly and completely soluble in alcohol, leaving no 

 residue ; whereas bee -honey, when subjected to the 

 same chemical process, deposits a ciystallized saccha- 

 rine matter. A figure of the nest constructed by this 

 insect is given in PI. XXVIII. It is formed of the 

 same materials, and is of similar architecture with 

 that of the European Wasp, viz. of woody fibres re- 



