236 TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
comb to the upper part of the cavity by means of a large mass 
of wax made up in the form of a supporting column. A second 
comb is added, when required, beneath the first, to which it is 
fixed by more or less numerous pillars or little columns, and all 
the combs are attached in this way, one under the other con- 
secutively. When the nest is completed inside some cavity or 
other, the walls of which protect the whole sufficiently, the insects 
only make coverings to those parts which are more or less exposed, 
but under other circumstances they take great pains to cover up 
their nest with many envelopes. Some hornets’ nests, which are 
found under the eaves of barns or granaries, attain a very con- 
siderable size, and are really very pretty and extraordinary objects. 
They are wonderfully fragile, and not strongly built, like the nests 
of the other wasps. Ordinary wasps scrape off woody fibres from 
living trees, and form a strong tenacious paper, but the hornets 
content themselves with rotten wood, out of which they manu- 
facture a yellowish or russet-coloured paper, which, although very 
pretty to the eye, is very friable, and does not possess any lasting 
properties. The larvae of these large wasps are fleshy grubs, and 
are destitute of feet. They have to be fed by the workers, and 
undergo metamorphoses similar to those of the other wasps. 
The wasps which have elongated bodies and the first segment 
of the abdomen formed into a long pedicle constitute the group 
of the Polistites. Linnaeus, without much regard to the geographical 
distribution of one of the species, called a very common wasp of 
this kind Polistes gallica. The French Polistes is a black insect 
decorated with yellow tints, which are also observed on the 
antennae. It frequents open spaces in woods, and there are few 
prettier sights than that presented in the spring-time by one of 
the females when it is building its little nest, or is attending to 
its larvae. It is not difficult to observe all this, for the Polistes 
attach their nests to low plants and bushes. The brooms espe- 
cially furnish them with straight and narrow twigs, which are 
very convenient for their particular method of nest building. 
The mother, after having hybernated during the winter, begins to 
work earnestly and with great perseverance early in May, and com- 
mences to construct her nest with materials which resemble those 
used by the bush wasp. The fibres of bark are reduced into 
