422 



HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



Just as the hymenoptera are chief among the pensiles and 

 the builders, so are they cliief among the Social Insects, and 

 the species which may be placed in this group are so numerous, 

 that it will only be possible to make a selection of a few, which 

 seem more interesting than the others. 



In the British Museum there arc some very remarkable nests 

 made by hymenopterous insects belonging to the genus Polyhia, 

 several of which are drawn in the accompanying illustration. 

 As it was desirable to include more than one specimen, the 

 figures are necessarily much reduced in size. Neither the nests 

 nor the insects, however, are of large dimensions, and the former 

 are so sombre in colour as well as small in size, that they would 

 not of themselves attract any attention. Their nests, however. 



