VESPIDAE WASPS' NESTS 



83 



Fig. 33.— Section of nest of 

 Chartergus chaiiarius. 

 South America. 0, Entrance. 

 (After de Saussure.) 



A very remarkable wasp's nest is preserved in the British 

 ilusenm of Natural History ; it is considered to be the work of 

 Monteziimia dimiddata Sauss. an Eumenid 

 wasp ; it is a large mass of cells encircling 

 the branch of a tree, which therefore pro- 

 jects somewhat after the manner of an 

 axle through the middle: the cells are 

 very numerous, and are quite as regular 

 as those of the most perfect of the combs 

 of bees : the mass is coA'ered with a very 

 thick layer of paper, the nest having 

 somewhat the external appearance of half 

 a cocoa-nut of twice the usual size. 



AjKtica 2^cdlida, a South American 

 Insect, forms a nest in a somewhat similar 

 manner to Polistes, but it is covered on 

 its outer aspect by a beautiful paper 

 skin, so that the nest looks somewhat 

 like a toadstool of large size attached 

 to the branch of a tree. 



The nests of the Insects of the genus Polyhia — which we 

 have already mentioned as located by de Saussm-e in his unsatis- 

 factory group Poecilocyttares — usually have somewhat the form 

 and size of pears or apples suspended to twigs of trees or bushes ; 

 these little habitations consist of masses of cells, wrapped in 

 wasp-paper, in which there are one or more orifices for ingress and 

 egress. Smith says that the combs in the nest of F. pygmaea 

 are of the most exquisite construction, and that it is by no 

 means an uncommon circumstance to find the outer envelope of 

 the nest ornamented with patches of delicate hexagonal tracery. 

 This nest is about the size of an orange. 



We have already noticed the variety of nests formed by our 

 British species of the genus Vespa ; in other parts of the world 

 the edifices formed by species of Vespa attain a very large size. 

 V. craironiformis in China, and V. velutina in India, make nests 

 several feet or even yards in length, inhabited by an enormous 

 number of individuals ; they are apparently constructed of a 

 material like brittle paper, and are arranged much like the 

 nests of our British hornet, V- crabro. Vespa orientalis mixes a 

 considerable quantity of earth with the paper it uses for its 



