580 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



solid, and tough, and can uphold a considerable weight, as is neces- 

 sary from the manner of constructing the nest. She then makes a 

 cell after the ordinary wasp-fashion, attaching it to the footstalk 

 with its mouth downwards, and at first making it comparatively 

 short. When the cell has nearly attained its due length, a 

 second is placed alongside the first, and a third is added in like 

 manner, each being lengthened as required. As the cells at the 

 base of the series are finished firet, it is evident that they gradually 

 diminish towards the end, those at the extremity being often 

 not one quarter so long as those at the base. 



The material employed in making these cells is woody fibre, 

 like that which is used by our common British wasps, and the 

 colour is rather dark yellowish brown, so that, in spite of the 

 curious method in which the nest-groups project from the 

 branches, they are not seen so readily as might be imagined 

 from their eccentric form. 



In these, as in many other forms of cells made by hymenop- 

 terous insects, is to be found an enigma which as yet is unsolved, 

 and for the mention of which I am indebted to Mr. F. Smith, of 

 the British Museiim : all the cells are cf equal size. 



Now this point, which would not particularly strike an 

 ordinary observer, is of the greatest importance to those who 

 have studied the economy of insects, and have bestowed much 

 thought upon them. If we examine the nest of a hive bee, and 

 take any single comb, we shall find that the cells are extremely 

 variable in size — the largest being those which are occupied by 

 the future queens, the smallest those which are the nurseries of 

 the worker bees, and the intermediate cells those in which the 

 drones or males are hatched. 



If we examine the nest of the common wasp or hornet, we 

 still find the cells of various sizes, corresponding with the 

 sexes and uses of the occupants ; and if we look at that of any 

 species of humble bee, the same fact is clearly perceptible. But 

 in the nests of the Icarias and similar insects, no such variation 

 is discoverable, and no distinction can be found between the 

 male and female cells. The natural question therefore arises, 

 whether all the members of each brood, or rather each cell- 

 group, are of the same sex ; or whether one nest produces males 

 and another females, just as one portion of the comb is given to 

 males, another to females, and another to neuters, in the case of 



