PAPER-MAKING IN THE INSECT WORLD 



BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT, C.M.Z.S. 



A MOST interesting volume might be written de- 

 voted exclusively to the achievements of many 

 insects in the arts and trades, and the treatise 

 would, in the matter of size, by no means be a booklet. 

 When I .say this, I do not refer to such structures as the 

 cocoons spun by many caterpillars and the like ; for the 

 material used in their construction that is the silk is 

 secreted by a special organ forming a part of the economv 



THE NEST MOST OFTEN SEEN 



Fig. I. Here we have several wasps of the common species in the eastern part 

 of the United States, resting upon a small paper nest they have completed, in the 

 cells of which the eggs of the insect have been deposited. The back of this nest, 

 that is. the opposite side of the view given in the cut. is made fast to the twig of 

 the bush selected by the builders by means of a strong little pedicle, made of 

 the same material as the nest, only denser and darker. ' This is the only paper 

 now being made in this country not costing more for prcduction, claimed by the 

 manufacturers, and not affected by the war in Europe. 



of the animal. But, upon the other hand, the instances 

 in the book could be confined to the work of such a re- 

 markable insect mechanic as the carpenter bee a species 

 that cuts a tunnel for its home in solid wood, the entrance 

 to which is almost a true circle half an inch in diameter, 

 and the rest a tube several inches in length, of about the 

 same diameter and quite cylindrical. With a brace and 

 bit one can make a similar excavation ; but should the tun- 

 nel made by the bee alter its direction, even for the 

 eighth of an inch or less as happens in some species 

 there is no tool that can accomplish what this insect does 

 in its particular piece of carpentry. Then there are the 

 remarkable cells of the mud-wasps, which one would have 

 considerable difficulty in imitating with accuracy, to say 

 nothing of the wax-combs of the honey bee, and an almost 

 endless number of other structures made by representa- 

 tives of various orders of the insect world. 



\\ onderful as many of these are, none are more so 

 or more interesting than the various forms of paper nests 

 constructed by certain species of hornets and wasps. 

 Some of them are familiar to us as occurring in the in- 

 sect fauna of the .Atlantic seaboard states, and to these 

 the present article will be confined, though there is a great 

 temptation to refer to other examples found in various 

 parts of the world, which are most extraordinary with 

 respect to their nesting-habits. 



We are all familiar with the common brown wasp, 

 for there is hardly one who has not, at one time or another, 

 been stung by one of them. It is the female of this species 

 that constructs the paper nest, which contains the young 

 wasps until the time has arrived for them to fly. When 

 they are ready to build, they resort to places where they 

 can find fibres of old. wood ; this they gnaw and knead until 

 a grayish mass is manufactured which closely resembles 

 papier-mache in color, consistency, and other properties. 

 While this mass is being prepared, its adhesive quality is 



THE NEST OF THE BLACK HORNET 



Fig. 2. The nest shown in this illustration is made by the common black hornet 

 of the Atlantic States; it is more or less fully described in the text of this article. 

 These nests, or nests of this form, are often of great size^n fact, big enough to 

 fill a bushel basket, or even larger. They contain a series, or tier of nests, quite 

 similar to the ones shown in Fig. 1, only of greater size with respect to the diam- 

 eter. Eventually, this series of nests, fastened together by a central pedicle in 

 horizontal planes, is completely surrounded or housed in by a top-shaped struc- 

 ture, similar to the one shown in the illustration. These insects, upon being 

 disturbed, fiercely resent it, and frequently their combined attacks are quite 

 serious. 



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