106 Mr. G. Meade-Waldo on 



shrub and trees (the latter chiefly Courida), extending from 

 Suddie Stelling to the mouth of the Pomeroon River. A 

 path runs parallel to the coast, and at 20 to 50 feet from the 

 highest tide-line. The Synceca appears to favour chiefly a 

 spot where there is some clay- mud, supporting a fairly dense 

 curtain of shrubs, so that they are protected both from the 

 breeze, which blows straight from the sea practically all the 

 year, and also from the sun. The nests, with the charac- 

 teristic horizontal ' fluting,' are very numerous, but confined 

 to a small locality, > They are on a level with the eye, 4 to 5 

 feet from the ground, where the trunks or branches are 

 about 3 to 4 inches diameter. All the nests seen by me were 

 on the side of the stem furthest from the sea and protected 

 from the wind, on a sloping part of the tree, so that the 

 stem above them is a protection from direct rain. As will 

 be noticed later, the wasp still has to deal with rain running 

 down the stem. The entrance is always at the lower end" *. 



Here follows a detailed account of the structure of the 

 nest, into which it is unnecessary to enter ; but Mr. Pollen 

 proceeds to give an account of one individual colony which 

 he kept under observation. The nest had become soaked 

 from a heavy deluge of rain. 



'' The number of the colony appeared to be about twenty, 

 as I presume all hands were called on deck to ' man the 

 pumps.' Shortly after my arrival, during a heavy rainfall, a 

 stream of water ran down the trunk of the tree and soaked 

 into the tent- wall. Immediately there was an angry buzzing, 

 and some twenty wasps climbed out of the nest and 

 began sucking up the moisture with their mouths, moving 

 their antennae and mandibles rapidly. As each one in 

 succession drank up as much moisture as it found convenient, 

 it turned to the side of the tent, and took up a position so 

 that it could look down, clear of the nest, towards the ground. 

 Then, straightening its second and third pair of legs, it 

 opened its mandibles as wide as possible, and raised its an- 

 tennse, which waved about slowly but irregularly, while the 

 whole body trembled with the evident effort of bringing up 

 all the water, which fell from the mouth in two or three big 

 drops. From the size of these drops and the slowness with 

 which they detached themselves from the mouth I surmise 

 that the water had become rather viscous ; but I was unable 

 to approach near enough to catch any of the drops. Often 

 when one or two drops had fallen the third was too long in 



* The italics are mine. — G. M-W. 



