84 Insect Architecture. 



fibres scarcely to be distinguished from that collected by 

 the wasp. 



We have ourselves frequently seen wasps employed in 

 procuring their materials in this manner, and have always 

 observed that they shift from one part to another more than 

 once in preparing a single load a circumstance which we 

 ascribe entirely to the restless temper peculiar to the whole 

 order of hymenopterous insects. Beaumur found that the 

 wood which they preferred was such as had been long ex- 

 posed to the weather, and is old and dry. White of Sel- 

 borne, and Kirby and Spence, on the contrary, maintain 

 that wasps obtain their paper from sound timber, hornets 

 only from that which is decayed.* Cur own observations, 

 however, confirm the statement of Beaumur with respect 

 to wasps, as, in every instance which has fallen under our 

 notice, the wood selected was very much weathered; and 

 in one case, an old oak post in a garden at Lee, in Kent, 

 half destroyed by dry-rot, was seemingly the resort of all 

 the wasps in the vicinity. In another case, the deal bond 

 in a brick wall, which had been built thirty years, is at this 

 moment (June, 1829) literally striped with the gnawings 

 of wasps, which we have watched at the work for hours 

 together. (J. E.) 



[Different species of wasps use different materials for their 

 nest. Vespa vulgaris always uses decayed wood, while V. 

 germanica and other species use sound wood. Owing to the 

 colour, the distinction between the nests of these insects is 

 evident at a glance. 



The bundles of ligneous fibres thus detached are moistened 

 before being used, with a glutinous liquid, which causes them 

 to adhere together, and are then kneaded into a sort of paste, 

 or papier mache. 



The method employed by the wasp in making its nest has 

 been so admirably described by Mr. S. Stone, that we cannot 

 do better than copy his description, which appeared in 

 " Beeton's Annual " of 1865. 



Reaumur, voL vi. bottom of page 182 ; Hist, of Selb. ii. 228 ; and 

 Introd. to Entomol. i. 504, 5th edition. 



