HYMENOPTEBA. 



373 



and which they scrape off with their teeth ; they make a sort of 

 paste of these scrapings by moistening them with a certain liquid 

 which they disgorge. The cells in the combs are hexagonal, and 

 very regular, like those of bees/'* 



Before beginning to build, the wasps heap up the materials 

 near the place where they have chosen to establish their domicile. 

 These materials are ligneous fibre, mixed up with saliva, with the 

 aid of which these insects prepare the paper-like substance, which 

 is very tough, and destined to form the walls of the cells and thei? 

 exterior covering. The greater number make their habitation ii 

 the ground. Of these is our common wasp ( Vespa vulgaris), which 

 is black, agreeably contrasted with bright yellow. The Bush or 

 Russet wasp (Vespa rufa), which inhabits woods, constructs its 

 nest between the branches of shrubs or bushes. It is smaller 

 than the common species, and its abdomen is of a russet colour. 

 The Hornet is the largest European species of the family of the 

 Vespidce. The substance of its nest is yellowish, and very fragile, 



Fig. 347. The Hornet ( Vespa crabro). 



and is constructed under a roof, in a loft, or in the hole of 

 an old wall, but most often in the hollow of a worm-eaten tree. 

 Another species of this family (Polistes gallica, Fig. 348) fixes 

 its little nest by a foot- stalk to the stem of some plant. 



Wasps begin laying in spring, and go on 

 laying all the summer. Each cell receives one 

 single egg, and, as with bees, the workers' 

 eggs are the first laid. Eight days after the 

 laying, there comes out of each egg a larva 

 without feet, and already provided with two 

 mandibles. These Iarva3 receive their food in 

 the form of balls, which the females or the 

 workers knead up with their mandibles and their legs before pre- 



* " M&noires pour servir a 1'Histoire des Insectes." Stockholm, 1771. In 4to., 

 tome ii., p. 765. 



