THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



139 



siroiig gray weather-proof paper that form tlie 

 material of their nests. Generally these nests 

 are suspended from the branches of trees, and 

 some of tliem when completed are much larger 

 than a man's head; but we have occasionally 

 seen small nests attached to the lower surface of 

 the rail of a tight board-fence, and we once met 

 with a single full-sized one which was built in 

 a weedy place so that it touched the surface of 

 the ground. Each nest, whatever be its location, 

 is suspended from some object above it by a sin- 

 gle st)'ong pillar, its external shape being globu- 

 lar or oval, and is covered by an outer envelop of 

 many irregular layers of paper. Inside this en- 

 velop the combs or la\ers of hexagonal cells are 

 placed— each suspended from the one above it by 

 numerous little pillars of the f^amc pajner mach£ 

 tliat the insect employs in all its architecture — 

 thus leaving an open passage-way between the 

 diflerent tiers. These combs, constructed of the 

 same paper-like substance, and not as in the case 

 of the honey-bee of wax, differ further from 

 those of the honey-bee in their horizontal posi- 

 tion, and in containing each of them but a single 

 layer of hexagonal cells, with their mouths 

 opening downwards ; whereas those of the 

 honey-bee are well known to all bee-keepers to 

 contain a double layer, with their mouths open- 

 ing sideways, and each comb suspended in a 

 perpendicular direction from the roof of the 

 hive. In the case of the Bald-faced Hornet, the 

 cells are used exclusively for rearing their larv» 

 in, each cell containing a single lai'va ; while the 

 honey-bee, as is notorious to every bee-man, 

 uses some of its cells for this purpose, and some 

 of them for the storage of honey to supply its 

 necessities during the cold inclement winter 

 months when no flowers are to be found. The 

 two insects, it m.ay be remarked, agree with 

 each other in the singular habit of beginning at 

 the top and bnilding downwards; aud the 

 Laputan philosopher, mentioned in Gulliver's 

 Travels, ingeniously proposed to imitate this 

 peculiar feature in their architecture, by build- 

 ing the garrets of every house first of all, and 

 then gradually working downwards to the low- 

 er stories and the cellar. 



With the Social "VVasps, as with all other so- 

 cial insects, there are no less than three distinct 

 kinds of individuals, namely. Males, Females, 

 and what used to be called "Neuters" or some- 

 times ''AVorkers," In the case of the hone}-- 

 bee, it was long ago conclusively proved that 

 the workers, when deprived of their queen, take 

 an egg which would oHierwise develop under 

 ordinary treatment into a common worker, and 

 liy placing it in a cell that is much larger and 



has its mouth opening downwards instead of 

 sideways, and is alw.ays pear-shaped instead of 

 hexagonally prismatic, and by feeding the young 

 larva that hatches ont from the egg with a pecu- 

 liar food, develop that larva into a fertile female, 

 or, as it is commonly called, a queeu-bee. Hence 

 it necessarily follows that, with the honey-bee, 

 the workers are merely a peculiar kind of fe- 

 males, though they difler by certain invariable 

 structural characters from the other kind, and 

 there are no intermediate grades between the 

 two. For tliis latter reason the two forms can- 

 not be considered as mere varieties, the one of 

 the other, but are cle.arly what naturalists now 

 call " dimorphous forms," Of late years it has 

 been further established by indisputable evi- 

 dence, that certain workers among the honey- 

 bees, witliont any sexual intercourse so far us 

 is known with the males or drones, sometimes 

 lay eggs whicli afterwards develop into com- 

 plete males. Here, however, it is exclusively 

 males that are thus generated ; and as it has been 

 shown by Siebold, a German naturalist, that the 

 ordiuai-y males of every hive proceed from un- 

 fertilized eggs laid by the queen-bee, -we may 

 infer by analogy that the males thus abnormally 

 produced by w'orkor-bees also proceed from un- 

 fertilized eggs. From all these facts, it follows 

 that, in the case of the honey-bee at all events, 

 the term '-neuter," as applied to the worker, 

 is clearly a misnomer. 



So far as regards the Social Wasps, it has 

 within the last few years been demonstrated in 

 England, that Worker-wasps can and do gen- 

 erate other Worker-wasps, without any inter- 

 course with the male sex.* Whether they can 

 also generate, in the same manner, the so-called 

 female wasps or queen wasps, and the male or 

 drone wasps, remains to be proved; but we 

 should not be surprised if it turns out that they 

 can. For with many distinct Families of insects 

 —for example, the Gall-flies, the Plant-lice, and 

 certain Families of moths— it has been shown 

 that several consecutive generations of fertile 

 females may successively come into the world 

 without anv sexual connection whiti\ti f Be 

 this as It ma\ it is quite clcai that, both in the 

 case ol the hnne\ -bee and in th it of tin ^oml 



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peumuilb w nil some ot our Miitucin socinl Wasps 

 ton tins rccoiulite subject so the note in >o ( ot 



«H IC VS 1 NTOMOI OC I«T p lOJ 



