258 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 



The following notes respecting wasps and their 

 nests were sent me, at my request, by my brother- 

 in-law Professor Henslow, who has paid a good deal 

 of attention to these insects. 



He says, in a letter, dated Hitcham, December 

 1845: "I have occasionally amused myself with 

 taking the nests of wasps and bees, and have been 

 interested with their economy, though I fear I have 

 not much to state that can be called positively new 

 to you. The soil here is a very stiff clay, well filled 

 with small rolled lumps of hard chalk and stones. The 

 wasps, in carrying off the earth to enlarge the holes 

 in which their nests are suspended, cannot remove 

 these lumps of chalk and stones ; which, by their 

 working round them, become detached, and keep 

 continually subsiding to the bottom, as the cavity is 

 enlarged, until at length they form a sort of loose 

 pavement. The droppings which fall from the nest 

 upon this pavement are sought after by flies, and a 

 number of their larvae may generally be found 

 crawling among the loose stones. Sometimes a large 

 stone projects from the side of the hole, and becomes 

 gradually inclosed as the nest enlarges, until at length 

 it has been completely detached from the soil, and is 

 then found suspended among the comb in the very 

 middle of the nest. 



seen the wasps, as many others have done, procuring it from the 

 solid wood of a window framing ; although, it must be remarked 

 that the wood in this instance also has been that which was some- 

 what affected by the weather." See more on this subject in the 

 communication which follows, made to me by Professor Henslow. 



