284 HABITATIONS OP INSECTS. 



greater quantity of glue made use of than in the rest of the work, doubt- 

 less with the view of giving them a superior solidity. When the first 

 comb is finished, the continuation of the roof or walls of the building is 

 brought down lower ; a new comb is erected ; and thus the work succes- 

 sively proceeds until the whole is finished. As a comparatively small 

 proportion of the society is engaged in constructing the nest, its entire 

 completion is the work of several months : yet, though the fruit of such 

 severe labour, it has not been finished many weeks before winter comes on, 

 when it merely serves for the abode of a few benumbed females, and is 

 entirely abandoned at the approach of spring ; wasps never using the same 

 nest for more than one season. 1 



The nests of the hornet. in their general construction resemble those of 

 the common wasp, but the paper of which they are composed is of a much 

 more rough texture ; the columns which support the comb are higher and 

 more massive, and that in the centre larger than the rest. 



These last, as well as wasps, conceal their nest, suspending it in the 

 corners of out-houses, &c. ; but there are other species which construct 

 their habitations in open daylight, affixing them to the branches of shrubs 

 or trees. 



One of these, described by Latreille, the work of Vespa holsatica, a species 

 not uncommon with us, resembles in shape a cone of the cedar of Lebanon, 

 and is composed of an envelope and the comb, the former' consisting of 

 three partial envelopes. The comb comprises about thirty hexagonal 

 cells circularly arranged, those of the circumference being lower and 

 smaller. 2 



A vespiary somewhat similar to the above, but of a depressed globular 

 figure, and composed of more numerous envelopes, so as to assume a con- 

 siderable resemblance to a half-expanded Provence rose, is figured by 

 Reaumur 3 : and for a very beautiful specimen apparently of the same kind, 

 except that it contains but one stage of cells, which was found in the 

 garden at East Dale, I am indebted to the kindness of Henry Thompson, 

 Esq., of Hull. 



Another species 4 attaches its small group of about twenty inverted 

 crucible-like cells to a piece of wood without any covering 5 , and similar 

 nests, having their cells exposed without any general envelope, and fixed 

 laterally to the stems of plants, walls, &c., are formed by Polistes gallica, 

 and others of the same genus. 



But all these yield in point of singularity of structure to the habitation 

 of Chartergus nidulans, a native of Cayenne, which constructs its nest of a 

 beautifully polished white and solid pasteboard, impenetrable by the 

 weather. These are in shape somewhat like a bell, often a foot and a half 

 long, or even more, and fixed by their upper end to the branch of a tree 

 from which they are securely suspended. Their interior is composed of 

 numerous concave horizontal combs,, with the openings of the cells turned 



1 Reaum. vi. mem. 6. 2 Annales du Mus. tfHist. Nat. i. 289. 



3 vi. t. 13. f. i. 2. 4 Rgsel's Vesp. t. 7. f. 8. 



5 Rosel, II. viii. 30. Descriptions of several other wasps' nests have been pub- 

 lished in various works ; but much uncertainty exists as to the different species 

 forming each, and as to how far their apparent dissimilarity has resulted from one 

 having been in a more or less forward state than another. See Westwood's Mod. 

 Class, of Ins. ii. 250., and Shuckard's Notes on the Pensile Nests of British Wasps in 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. 458. 



