254 INSECTA. 
pierced with a common and almost always central opening, which 
sometimes corresponds to a series of holes which communicate with 
‘the interior; the combs adhere to the parietes of the envelope, 
whether they be in the open air or concealed in the earth or hollows 
of trees. The figure of these structures varies according to the 
species. 
The females commence the business alone, and lay eggs that pro- 
duce neuters or labourers, which assist in enlarging the nest and 
taking care of the succeeding young ones. The community is solely 
composed of these two kinds of individuals, until the beginning of 
autumn, at which period the young males and females make their 
appearance. All the larvee and nymphs which cannot complete their 
ultimate metamorphosis before the month of November, are put to 
death and dragged from their cells by the labourers, which perish 
along with the males on the approach of winter. Some of the females 
survive, and in the spring become the founders of a new colony. 
Wasps feed on Insects, viands of various sorts, or fruit, and nourish 
their Jarvee with the juices of these substances. The latter, which on 
account of the inferior situation of the mouths of their cells, are placed 
with their head downwards, shut themselves up and spin a cocoon, 
when about to become nymphs. The males never work. 
In several species, that portion of the internal margin of the man- 
dibles which is beyond the angle and terminates it, is shorter than 
that which precedes the angle; the middle of the anterior part of the 
clypeus projects in a point. These species form the subgenus 
PoutsteEs, Lat., Fab.* 
Sometimes the abdomen resembles that of Eumenes, properly so 
called, in the form of its two first annuli. Such is 
P. morio, Fab.; G. Tatua, Cuv., Bullet. de la Sec. Philom., 
No. VIII; Lat., Gen. Crust. et Insect., I, xiv, 5. Entirely black 
and glossy. Its nest forms a truncated cone like that of the 
nidulans, but it is larger, the bottom is flat, and perforated at 
one of its sides, and the material is coarser. It inhabits Cay- 
enne. 
Sometimes the abdomen is elliptical, or borders on an oval. Such 
is the 
P. gallica ; Vespa Gallica, L.; Panz., Faun. Insect. Germ., 
XLIX, 22. Rather smaller than the Vespa vulgaris ; black ; the 
elypeus, two dots on the thorax, six lines on the scutellum, two 
spots on the first and second rings of the abdomen, and their 
superior margin, as well as that of all the others, yellow; abdo- 
men bordering on an oval, and with a short pedicle. Its nest 
has the form of a little tapering bouquet, and contains from 
* Lat., Gen. Crust. et Insect., IV, p. 141. Those species, in which the abdomen 
is oval or elliptical, narrowed at base, and sometimes even placed on a long pedicle, 
are true Polistes. Those, in which its second ring is much larger than the others, 
and campanulate, and where the preceding frequently forms a clavate pedicle, are 
Epipones. The G. Tatua belongs to this division, as well as the honey-gathering 
species from Brazil, previously mentioned, and the V, nidulans. 
