564: 
ARTICULATA. 
may be taken as tlie type. This insect lives in extensive communities, inhabiting a nest formed 
in holes of walls, buildings, or the ground ; the mass of the community, as we shall see among 
the ants, is composed of barren females, or workers. In the wasps these are winged, so that 
the difference between them and the queens, or fertile females, is less striking than among the ants. 
But in addition to these Social Wasps there is a considerable number which are solitary in their 
habits, possessing only individuals of the two sexes, perfect males and perfect females, of which 
the latter form nests or burrows in which they lay their eggs, after stocking them with food. 
The nests of the Social Wasps are formed of a paper-like material, prepared by the insects from 
wool and other vegetable matters, which they masticate until it acquires a pulpy consistence, and 
then apply it to the building of their nests. The outside usually consists of layers of a rather 
coarser kind of paper, and the interior of the nest is occupied by a series of transverse combs, 
composed of hexagonal cells, with the mouths downward. The combs are united by little pillars 
formed of the same material. In these cells the eggs are laid, and the larvae are constantly fed 
with honey by the workers. A few species even lay up a store of honey like the bees. 
The societies of wasps are entirely destroyed every year at the approach of cold weather — only 
the young females surviving the winter, and these in a state of torpidity ; when the mild weather of 
spring again calls them into life, they immediately set about the formation of a nest, in which 
they lay a few eggs, and attend to the larvse themselves. The first brood consists entirely of 
workers, which, on reaching the perfect state, relieve the queen of all labor, and the colony then 
rapidly increases. It is, however, composed entirely of workers until the end of the summer, 
when males and females make their appearance. 
The Solitary/ Wasjjs usually make their nests of clay or agglutinated sand, generally attaching 
themselves to walls and palings ; a few also burrow in sandy ground. The nest consists of several 
cells placed close together, and each cell is stored with a supply of insect food for the support 
of the larvse. 
HORNETS AND THEIR NEST. 
The Hornets resemble the Wasps in their habits, but they are noted for their spitefalness 
and the acute pain inflicted by their stings. There are many species, some building a nest of 
paper-like materials, and attaching it to the limb of a tree, as is customary with certain European 
species — the Vespa Gallica for instance — and also with the common hornet of this country, ^ 
others building their vespiaries in the hollows of logs and trees, which they enlarge to suit their 
purpose. Sometimes they build in a thatch or in the roof of a barn or in holes they find in 
the coverings of out-houses. 
THE FOSSORIA. 
These are Burrowing Hymenoptera, and are not divided into three kinds like the preceding : 
they are called Sand-Wasps or Burrowing- Wasps, and excavate little burrows in mud or sand. 
