HYMENOPTERA. 145 
Vespa, Pouisres, Lat. 
These Insects unite in numerous societies, composed of males, 
females and neuters. The two last detach particles of old wood or 
bark with their mandibles, moisten and reduce them into a pultaceous 
mass resembling that of paper or pasteboard, and construct combs 
or nests with it that are usually horizontal, and suspended above 
by one or more pedicles; on the inferior side is a range of vertical 
cells in the form of hexagonal and truncated pyramids. These cells 
are approximated exclusively to the use of the larve and nymphs, a 
cellto each. The number of combs that compose this nest varies. 
It is sometimes exposed, and at others surrounded by an envelope, 
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 larve 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 fe- 
males 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 larve 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 
Poutsres of Lat., Fab.(1) 
(1) Lat., Gen. Crust. et Insect., IV, p. 141. Those species, in which the abdo- 
men is oval or elliptical, narrowed at base, and sometimes even placed on a long 
WioreloVe=—= 
