174 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



though we are not in a position to assert otherwise, 

 we think the statement is open to question. The 

 smaller species of Ves^a select fibrous material, 

 and it is scarcely probable that the larger insect 

 would prefer a more fragile substance for her 

 larger works. It has also been stated that the 

 darker colour of her paper is due to its being made 

 from bark shavings. 



She does not leave off work when night comes 

 on, for she may be seen on moonlight nights, 

 seeking her prey. At times she is found by moth- 

 hunters industriously lapping up the sweet mixture 

 known as " sugar " which they have painted in 

 broad streaks on tree-trunks for the allurement 

 of night-flying moths. Often when her tree- 

 hollow is of a sufficiently enclosed character, the 

 Hornet will omit the paper walls of her nest, and 

 thereby save much labour which can be devoted 

 instead to the building of combs and the care of 

 her grubs. 



The genus Polistts, of which P. gallica is a well- 

 known Continental species, builds combs suspended 

 from branches and attached to rocks, but without 

 any paper nest surrounding them. In some books 

 where this comb has been figured it is shown as a 

 horizontal structure, with the cells opening up- 

 wards. The natural position for the comb is 

 vertical, and of the cells horizontal with their 

 openings outwards, an arrangement that is also 

 found in the combs of the Honey Bee. 



Ischnogaster melleyi, a long-waisted Javanese 



