296 ' HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



these cells would have been lengthened had the insects been left 

 to themselves. 



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 that 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 attacked to foot- 

 stalks which spring from their centre, and are firmly cemented 

 upon the branch or twig. How wonderfully the insect must 

 manage the comb so that it shall be balanced on this slender 

 footstalk ! To preserve the equilibrium of even an empty comb 

 would be difficult enough, but when the cells are filled with fat, 

 heavy grubs, the difficulty must be multiplied with every one. 



The footstalks are made of the same papier-mache like sub- 

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

 gether that they form a hard, solid mass, very much like the lit- 

 tle 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 marvelous 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 Curculionidee, or Weevils, and there 



