Queer Homes. 39 



in the aerial roots of Orchids, and one uncommonly long 

 and slender kind takes up its abode in the swollen 

 petioles of a shrub, the Cordia nodosa. 



Several species of wasps belonging to the Genera 

 Polybia and Polistes are to be seen in our forestS; and 

 many of them construfl very singular nests which cannot 

 well be described without the aid of drawings. One 

 however that I came across while travelling in the 

 Kanaku Mountains, was so strange that I will try to 

 describe it. It consisted of about a dozen cells of much 

 the size and shape of those of the Polistes^ but instead 

 of being composed of a papery substance, they were 

 apparently made of mud, and were attached to the branch 

 of a small tree by a fine thread of two or three feet in 

 length. The thread resembled a horse hair, both in 

 texture and colour, in fa6l it might have easily been mis- 

 taken for such by anyone unacquainted with its origin. 

 At the end of this hair-like cable the nest swung to and 

 fro in the breeze like the pendulum of a clock. What 

 could be the objefl of this strange provision we cannot 

 even conjefture, nor do we know the inseft that made it, 

 but judging from the shape of the cells and the larvae 

 they contained, the architect was most probably a Po^ 

 Itstes. 



A species of wasp belonging to the Polistidse forms 

 its nest by fixing ceil after cell in a line, until the struc- 

 ture, which is of a dark brown colour, often attains the 

 length of six inches. Others constru6l nests of three or 

 four irregular cells composed of a grey papery substance. 

 A good example of this family of wasps is to be found in 

 the red " Marabunta" that takes up its abode under the 

 bridges of sugar estates, and most planters can testify to 



