AVEEVILS. 277 



Although the circular shape is mostly the rule with these 

 combs, so that they look something like -withered dahlias or 

 chrysanthemums, it is not the invariable form. If the reader 

 will look at the lower figure in the illustration, he will see tliat 

 it is much wider than long, and is apparently composed of two 

 of the circular combs fixed together. 



Now comes the curious part of the structure. The combs 

 are not fastened directly to the branches, but are attached 

 to footstalks which spring from their centre, and are firmly 

 cemented upou the branch or twig. This group of cells is 

 copied from the specimen in the British Museum, but ought to 

 have been reversed, so that the mouths of the cells hang down- 

 wards. The observer should notice the wonderful manner in 

 which the balance is preserved, the footstalk occupying as nearly 

 as possible the centre of gravity. 



The footstalks are made of the same papier^mdcM like sub- 

 stance as the cells, only the layers are so tightly compressed 

 together that they form a hard, solid mass, very much like the 

 little pillars which support the different stories of an ordinary 

 wasp's nest, but of much greater size. The position of the combs 

 is extremely variable, some being nearly horizontal, and others 

 perpendicular, as shown in the illustration. These nests came 

 from Bareilly in the East Indies. 



Having now completed our notice of the pensile hymenoptera, 

 we turn to another order of insects. 



We can hardly expect to find that any of the beetles can be 

 ranked among the pensile insects, their appearance and general 

 habits being opposed to such an idea. The variety of nests made 

 by the hymenoptera lead us at once to conjecture that some of 

 them may be pensile, for it is at least likely that the little archi- 

 tects which can construct the marvellous system of the honey- 

 comb, or the complicated galleries of the ant's nest, or contrive 

 the wonderful homes of the leaf-cutter bees, would be also able 

 to make nests which could be suspended from leaves or branches. 

 But there is nothing in the general history of beetles which could 

 lead us to place them among the pensile insects, a rank, however, 

 which can be taken by a very few species, most of which belong 

 to a single group. 



This group is that of the Curculionidae, or Weevils, and there 



