HYMENOPTEEA. 379 



little paper bouquets, composed of from twenty to thirty cells 

 grouped in a circle. 



Fig. 353.- Nest of Polistes gallica. 



The Card-making wasp of Cayenne (Charter gus nidulans, Fig 

 354) is a consummate artist. Its nest represents a sort of box or 

 bag, made of a substance resembling card- 

 board, so fine and so white that the best 

 worker in that material would be deceived 

 by it. This nest has only one single hole 

 at its base; each of the combs it contains 

 is likewise pierced by a hole in its centre, 

 to afford a passage to the wasps. In an T\K. 354. The curd-making 



,. * . *_ Wasp (Charter (jus nidulans). 



architectural point of view, the card- 

 making wasp is almost superior to the bee, for the latter does not 

 build its house, it only furnishes it, as Latreille remarks with 

 truth. The Brazilian species of Chartergus, which the in- 

 habitants call Lecheguana,* manufactures a honey, the use of 

 which is not without danger, as it occasions vertigo and sharp 

 pains in the stomach. The naturalist, Auguste Saint- Hilaire, 

 during his sojourn in Brazil, himself experienced ill effects from 

 eating it. 



There are, moreover, solitary wasps, which make their cells in 

 holes which they scoop out in the ground, or in the stalks of 

 certain plants. In the adult state these live on honey ; but their 

 larvae are carnivorous, and the female is obliged to bring them 

 living insects. The commonest of these solitary wasps belong to 



* Hence the scientific name, Chartergus lecheguana. ED. 



