318 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



tube of wax made in a different shape by different species ; and to coat 

 them internally with a lining of the same material, ^hey even occasion- 

 ally construct honey-pots entirely of wax.^ 



The most curious circumstance in the construction of these nests is the 

 mode in which the bees transport the moss employed in forming the roof. 

 When they have discovered a parcel of this material conveniently situated 

 upon the ground, five or six insects place themselves upon it in a file, turn- 

 ing the hinder part of their bodies towards the quarter to which it is 

 meant to be conveyed. The first takes a small portion, and, with its jaws 

 and fore-legs, as it were fells it together. When the fibres are sufficiently 

 entangled, it pushes them under its body by means of the first pair of 

 legs ; the intermediate pair receives the moss, and delivers it to the last, 

 which protrudes it as far as possible beyond the anus. When by this 

 process the insect has formed behind it a small ball of well-carded moss, 

 the next bee pushes it to the third, which consigns it, in like manner, to 

 that behind it ; and thus the balls are conveyed to the foot of the nest, 

 and from thence elevated to the summit, much in the same way that a file 

 of laborers transfer a parcel of cheeses from a vessel or cart to a ware- 

 house.^ It is easy to perceive that a vast saving of time must ensue from 

 this well contrived division of labor ; the structure rising much more 

 rapidly than if every individual had been employed first in carding his 

 materials, and then in transferring them to the spot. 



Wasps, though ferocious and cruel towards their fellow-insects, are civiliz- 

 ed and polished in their intercourse with each other, and form a community 

 whose architectural labors will not suffer on comparison even with those 

 of the peaceful inhabitants of a bee-hive. Like these, the great object 

 of their industry is the erection of a structure for their beloved progeny, 

 towards which they discover the greatest tenderness and affection, and 

 they even, in like manner, construct combs consisting of hexagonal cells 

 for their reception ; but the substance which they make use of is very 

 dissimilar to the wax employed by bees; and the general plan of their 

 city differs in many respects from that of a bee-hive. 



The common wasp's nest, usually situated in a cavity underground, is 

 of an oval figure, about sixteen or eighteen inches long by twelve or thir- 

 teen broad. Externally, it is surrounded by a thick coating of numerous 

 leaves of a sort of greyish paper, which do not touch each other, but have 

 a small interval between each, so that if the rain should chance to pene- 

 trate one or two of them, its progress is speedily arrested. On removing 

 this external covering, we perceive that the interior consists of from twelve 

 to fifteen circular combs of different sizes, not ranged vertically as in a 

 bee-hive, but horizontally, so as to form so many distinct and parallel 

 stories. Each comb is composed of numerous assemblage of hexagonal 

 cells formed of the same paper-like substance as the exterior covering of 

 the nest, and, according to Dr. Barclay, each, as in those of bees, a 

 distinct cell, the partition walls being double.^ These cells, which, as 

 wasps do not store up any food, serve merely as the habitations of" their 

 young, are not, like those of the honey-bee, arranged in two opposite 



> Haber, Linn. Trans, vi. 215—2^8. • Reaum. vi. 7—10. 



' Memoirs of tlu IVernerian Society, ii. 260. 



