s 
372 THE INSECT WORLD. 
and which they scrape off with their jaws; they make a sort of 
paste of these scrapings by moistening them with a certain liquid 
which they disgorge. The cells in the combs are hexagonal, and 
very regular, like those of bees.’’* 
Wasps collect the materials with which they build near the 
place where they have chosen to establish their domicile. These 
inaterials are ligneous fibre, mixed up with saliva, with the aid 
of which these insects prepare the paper-like substance, which 
is very tough, and destined to form the walls of the cells and their 
exterior covering. ‘The greater number make their habitation in 
the ground. Of these is our Common Wasp (Vespa vulgaris), 
which is black, agreeably contrasted with bright yellow. The 
Bush Wasp (Vespa norvegica), which inhabits woods, constructs 
its nest between the branches of shrubs or bushes. It is smaller 
than the common species. The Hornet is the largest European 
species of the family of the. Vespide. The substance of its nest 
is yellowish, and very fragile, and is constructed under a roof, 




G9 
fh 
i 
Fig. 347.—The mee (Vespa crabro). 
in a loft, or in the hole of an old wall, but most often in the 
hollow of a decayed tree. Another species of this family (Polistes 
gallica, Fig. 348) fixes its little nest by a foot-stalk to the stem of 
some plant. 
Wasps begin laying in spring, and go on 
laying all the summer. Hach cell receives one 
single egg, and, as with bees, the workers’ 
eggs are the first laid. Hight days after the 
laying, there comes out of each egg a larva 
without feet, and already provided with two 
mandibles. These larvee receive their food in 
the form of balls, which the females or the 
workers knead up with their mandibles and their legs before 
* “Mémoires pour servir a |’ Histoire des Insectes.” Stockholm, 1771. In 4to., 
tome il., p. 765. 

Fig. 348.—Polistes gallica. 
