THE SOCIAL WASPS. 269 



nest. At the bottom of this oval house there are two 

 openings, one for the entrance, the other for the exit 

 of the inhabitants, and these open into a common 

 passage, formed in the earth by the labours of the 

 Wasps, and leading out to the surface of the ground, 

 where it usually opens beneath a clod of earth, or in 

 a situation concealed by the herbage. 



The interior of the nest is occupied by a series of 

 horizontal combs, composed of a substance similar 

 in its nature to that of which the outer layers are 

 formed, but of a finer and smoother texture ; each 

 comb consists of a single series of beautifully sym- 

 metrical hexagonal cells, with their apertures directed 

 downwards, the upper surface of each comb forming 

 a smooth floor, at a distance of about half-an-inch 

 from the mouths of the cells in the comb above, so 

 that the wasps when walking upon it can easily pass 

 to and fro, or get at any of the cells in the tier above 

 them. To secure this complicated fabric from falling, 

 the little architects not only fasten the combs to the 

 outer walls of the nest, but also connect them with 

 each other by means of numerous little columns of 

 the same paper-like material of which the rest of 

 their building is composed ; between the large combs 

 in the middle of the nest there are often as many as 

 forty or fifty of these little pillars, whilst the number 

 gradually diminishes with the size of the combs to- 

 wards the top and bottom. In the construction of 

 their wonderful edifice, the Wasps, like most insect 

 architects, begin at the top of their building and work 

 gradually downwards. The first commencement is a 

 little dome of paper exhibiting a comb of a few cells 

 in its concavity ; the continuation of the dome down- 

 wards forms the oval coat of the perfect Wasps' nest, 



