HYMENOPTERA. 377 
degree the number of wasps, which are, later, so destructive to 
the fruit, by catching in nets the females, which might be attracted 
in quantities by means of the blossom of the black currant.” This 
is a useful hint to gardeners. 
The Hornets are distinguished from other wasps by their great 
size. They make their nests in the trunks of old trees, perforating 
the sound wood to arrive at the heart, which is rotten, or hol- 
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“flee” 
Fig. 352.—Hanging Hornets’ Nest. 

lowing for themselves a hole, which they clear out by the gallery 
which leads to it. In this hole they construct first a dome sus- 
pended to the top by a footstalk ; then a series of combs composed 
of cells, hanging the first to this dome, the second to the first, and 
so on, by stalks or pillars of a paper-like substance. When fixed 
under roofs, these nests have often the form of an elongated pear. 
Fig. 352 represents one of these nests, after Réaumur. The 
societies of hornets contain fewer members than those of the 
common wasp; at most two hundred insects. 
The Polistes are a peculiar kind of wasp, smaller than the 
others, slender, with the abdomen tapering towards the base. The 
construction of their nests is more simple, having no envelopes, as - 
shown in Fig. 353. They attach them to the stems of broom, 
furze, or other shrubs, by a footstalk, or pedicle. They are like 
