82 



INSECT ARHITECTURE. 



and at Wemyss Bay, in Renfrewshire. The tree 

 which the Britannic wasp prefers is the silver fir, 

 whose broad flat branch serves as a protection to the 

 suspended nest both from the sun and the rain. The 

 materials and structure are nearly the same as those 

 employed by the common wasp, and which we have 

 already described.* 



A singular nest of a species of wasp is figured by 

 Reaumur, but is apparently rare in this country, as 

 Kirby and Spence mention only a single nest of similar 

 construction, found in a garden at East-Dale. This 

 nest is of a flattened globular figure, and composed 

 of a great number of envelopes, so as to assume a 

 considerable resemblance to a half-expanded Pro\ance 

 rose. The British specimen mentioned by Kirby and 

 Spence had only one platform of cells; Reaumur's 

 had two ; but there was a large vacant space, which 

 would probably have been filled with cells, had the 

 nest not been taken away as a specimen. The whole 



