428 



HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



may form an idea of the labour which even the exterior of 

 a wasp's nest requires, on being told that not fewer than 

 fifteen or sixteen sheets of it are usually placed above each 

 other with slight intervening spaces, making the whole up- 

 wards of an inch and a half in thickness. When the dome 

 is completed, the uppermost comb is next begun, in which, 

 as well as all the other parts of the building, precisely the 

 same material and the same process, with little variation, are 

 employed. In the structure of the connecting pillars, there 

 seems a greater quantity of glue made use of than in the rest 

 of the work, doubtless with the view of giving them a 

 superior solidity. When the first comb is finished, the 

 continuation of the roof or walls of the building is brought 

 down lower ; a new comb is erected ; and thus the work 

 successively proceeds until the whole is finished. As a 

 comparatively small proportion of the society is engaged in 

 constructing the nest, its entire completion is the work of 

 several months : yet, though the fruit of such severe labour, 

 it has not been finished many weeks before winter comes on, 

 when it merely serves for the abode of a few benumbed 

 females, and is entirely abandoned at the approach of spring ; 

 wasps never using the same nest for more than one season.^ 



The nests of the hornet in their general construction 

 resemble those of the common wasp, but the paper of which 

 they are compesed-is-of a much more rough texture ; the 

 columns which support the comb are higher and more 

 massive, and that in the centre larger than the rest. 



These last, as well as wasps, conceal their nest, suspending 

 it in the corners of out-houses, &c. ; but there are other 

 species which construct their habitations in open daylight, 

 affixing them to the branches of shrubs or tree. 



One of these, described by Latreille, the work of Vespa 

 holsatica, a species not uncommon with us, resembles in 

 shape a cone of the cedar of Lebanon, and is composed of an 

 envelope and the comb, the former consisting of three partial 

 envelopes. The comb comprises about thirty hexagonal cells 

 circularly arranged, those of the circumference being lower 

 and smaller.'^ 



1 Reaum. vi. mem. 6. Annales du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. i. 289. 



