HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



429 



A vespiary somewhat similar to the above, but of a de- 

 pressed globular figure, and composed of more numerous 

 envelopes, so as to assume a considerable resemblance to a half- 

 expanded Provence rose, is figured by Reaumur i : and for a 

 very beautiful specimen apparently of the same kind, except 

 that it contains but one stage of cells, which was found in 

 the garden at East Dale, I am indebted to the kindness of 

 Henry Thompson, Esq., of Hull. 



Another species ^ attaches its small group of about twenty 

 inverted crucible-like cells to a piece of wood without any 

 covering ^, and similar nests, having their cells exposed with- 

 out any general envelope, and fixed laterally to the stems of 

 plants, walls, &c., are formed hjPolistes gallica, and others of 

 the same genus. 



But all these yield in point of singularity of structure to 

 the habitation of Chartergus nidulans, a native of Cayenne, 

 which constructs its nest of a beautifully polished white and 

 solid pasteboard, impenetrable by the weather. These are in 

 shape somewhat like a bell, often a foot and a half long, or 

 even more, and fixed by their upper end to the branch of a 

 tree from which they are securely suspended. Their interior 

 is composed of numerous concave horizontal combs, with the 

 openings of the cells turned downwards, fastened to the sides 

 without any pillars, and having a hole through each to admit 

 of access to the uppermost."^ A nest constructed on a simi- 

 lar plan, but having its exterior surface beset with numerous 

 conical knobs, is constructed by another South American 

 wasp, remarkable for collecting honey, for a valuable article 

 on which we are indebted to Mr. Adam White, who has 

 named it Myrapetra scutellaris,^ 



I close my account of the habitations of insects with the 



1 vi, t. 19. f. i. 2. 2 Rosel's Vesp. t. 7. f. 8. 



3 Rbsel, II. viii. 30. Descriptions of several other wasps' nests have been 

 published in various works; but much uncertainty exists as to the different spe- 

 cies forming each, and as to how far their apparent dissimilarity has resulted from 

 one having been in a more or less forward state than another. See Westwood's 

 Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 250., and Shuckard's Notes on the Pensile Nests of British 

 Wasps in Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. 458. 



4 Reaum. vi. 224. Compare Lacordaire, Introd. a VEntom. ii. 508. 

 3 Annals of Nat. Hist. vii. 3] 5. 



