THE WASPS. 30 



have already lost the best part of the prerogative of their 

 sex, the reproduction of their kind. The same naturalist 

 had an opportunity of witnessing an interesting incident, 

 proving the great intelligence of the Polistes. He took 

 away from a nest-building insect, during a short absence, 

 the work it had commenced, and quickly fastened on another 

 piece of a nest, three times as large. The architect, on its 

 return, flew uneasily round it, sat down near it, considering 

 the matter, doing nothing till the next day, and on the 

 following day decided to take possession of the strange nest, 

 and build on from it ! It had, therefore, by reflexion, 

 attained to a complete comprehension of the state of affairs, 

 and, instead of giving itself the trouble of building a new 

 nest, it sensibly took possession of the one offered to it. 



The most artistic and also the largest nest is built by the 

 Brazilian Polybia liliacea. De Saussure says that we may 

 " regard its nest as one of the greatest wonders of insect 

 architecture." Blanchard saw one of its nests, which was 110 

 centimetres long and 117 centimetres in circumference ; it 

 was still uncompleted above, but nevertheless contained 

 many thousands of cells. A small American species of 

 wasp (Chartergus nidulans), Reaumur's paper wasp, on the 

 other hand, builds little bag-shaped nests, the paper-like 

 material of which is of such fineness and perfection that a 

 Parisian paper merchant, to whom the paper was shown 

 without being told its origin, was quite enthusiastic about it, 

 saying that no Parisian merchant could make such paper, it 

 must have been made in Orleans. In Guiana there is a 

 perfectly black wasp (Tatua Morio), which also makes a 

 beautiful nest. It consists of about eight or ten horizontal 

 layers of cells, or combs, lying over each other and fastened 

 round the bough of a tree : the whole is covered with a 

 spindle-shaped covering, which seems as if composed of fine 

 paper, made by an artist hand. 



At Santarem, South America, Bates (loc. cit., ii., p. 40, 

 etc.,) observed a social, yellow and black wasp, (Pelopceus 

 fistularis), which like our mason bee built its nest out of 

 potter's clay. It rolls this with its jaws into little pellets, 

 which it then carries away. Its nest looks like a purse two 

 inches long, and is attached to a branch or other spot. 

 Bates had the opportunity of closely observing the process 

 -of building. Each fresh lump of clay was brought by the 



