FOREIGN BEES. 
295 
meter, and formed of a strong hard clay, having its 
crust or shell of about four inches in thickness. On 
breaking up one of these nests — an operation which 
required the aid of a hatchet — it was found com- 
posed of combs of wax filled with fine honey. The 
bee is blackish in colour, not so taper in its shape 
as the European insect, but nearly of the same size ; 
less irritable, but possessed of a sting. 
The most remarkable entomological fact stated by 
this writer, is the existence in Brazil and Paraguay 
of a honey gathering TVasp ! AVhen the statement 
appeared, it was supposed by Latreillc and others, 
that, not being much versed in entomology, Azara 
had mistaken for an individual of the wasp family 
what was in reality one of the Melipona or Trigonis 
genus, common in South America. More recently, 
however, the researches of M. de St. Hilaire have 
confirmed the accuracy of the Spaniard ; and it seems 
now an established fact that the insect provincially 
named Lechcguana, belonging to the genus Vespa 
( Poiistes of Latreille), produces honey of a very ex- 
cellent kind, which it stores up in cells for use during 
the season of the repose of vegetable life, and which 
differs from that produced by the bees only in being 
wholly and completely soluble in alcohol, leaving no 
residue ; whereas bee-honey, when subjected to the 
same chemical process, deposits a crystallized saccha- 
rine matter. A figure of the nest constructed by this 
insect is given in PI. XXVIII. It is formed of the 
same materials, and is of similar architecture with 
that of the European Wasp, viz. of woody fibres re- 
