Insect Geometry 



preventive against cooling; it recommends 

 the use of double windows to maintain a 

 mild temperature in our houses in winter. 

 Long before the days of human science, the 

 little Wasp, that passionate lover of 

 warmth, knew the secret of multiple enve- 

 lopes containing layers of air. With its 

 three or four balloons, fitting within one 

 another, her nest, hanging in the sun, must 

 turn into a vapour-bath. 



These paper containers are merely de- 

 fensive works; the actual city, for which all 

 the rest has been built, occupies the top of 

 the dome. It consists at present of a single 

 layer of hexagonal cells, open below. 

 Later on, other, similar layers would have 

 been added, descending in stages and each 

 connected with its predecessor by little 

 papier mdche columns. The aggregate of 

 these layers, or combs, would supply not far 

 short of a hundred cells, the lodgings of as 

 many larvae. 



The method of rearing imposes on the 

 Social Wasps rules unknown to the other 

 builders. These latter store in each cell 

 provisions honey or game apportioned 

 to the grub's needs. The egg once laid, 

 they close the cell. The rest does not 

 concern them: the immured larva will find 

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