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CHAPTER IIL. 
SOCIAL INSECTS. 
Arrangement of groups—Nests of PoLtypra—Curious method of enlarge- 
ment—Structure of the nests—How concealed—Various modes of 
attachment —A curious specimen—The Hive Bex and its claims to 
notice—General history of the hive—Form of the cells—The royal 
cell—Its structure and use—Uses of the ordinary cells—Structure of 
the Bee-cell—Economy of space—How produced—Theories of differ- 
ent mathematicians—Measurement of angles—A logarithmic table 
corrected by the Bee-cell--The “lozenge ” a key to the cell—How to 
form it—Beautiful mathematic proportions of the lozenge—Method 
of making the cell or a model—Conjectured analogy between the cell 
and certain crystals—Effect of the cell upon honey—The Hornet and 
its nest—Its favourite localities—Difficulties of taking a Hornet’s nest 
—Habits of the insect—Mr, Stone’s method of taking the nest—The 
Syna@oa and its habitation—-Beautiful nests in the British Museum 
—Description of the insect—Nest of the Eucnzrra—Its external 
form—Curious discovery in dissection—A suspended colony—Con- 
jectures respecting the structure—Nest from the Oxford Museum— 
Remarkable form of its doors, and material of which it is made—The 
SMALL Ermine Mora and its ravages—Its large social habitation— 
General habits of the larva—Why the sparrow does not eat them— 
The Goip-TatepD Morn and its beautiful social nest—Description of 
a specimen from Wiltshire—lIllustration of the theory of heat—The 
Brown-TaILeD Moru and its nest—Sucial habitations of the PEAcH 
and SMALL ToRTOISESHELL BUTTERFLIES. 
AFTER the Social Birds come the SocraL Insects, to which 
the following chapter is dedicated. 
Just as the hymenoptera are chief among the pensiles 
and the builders, so are they chief 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. 
