154 
STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
trees at night, for the purpose of attracting moths, numbers of 
these wasps settled on the sweet bait, and not only were more 
numerous than the lepidoptera, but actually resented any at- 
tempts at dislodgment. 
The nest of this insect is always pensile, and is hung from 
the branches of a tree or shrub, the fir and gooseberry being 
the favourites. A pretty specimen in my own collection was 
taken from a gooseberry-tree in a garden, and another similar 
nest was found at no great distance. One of these nests I 
presented to the British Museum, and the other is now before 
me. It is very small, only having one ‘ terrace/ in which are 
thirteen cells, arranged in five rows, four being in the central 
row, and the rest graduating regularly. It is almost as large as 
a well-sized turnip radish, and something of the same shape, 
supposing the radish to be suspended by the root, and to be 
cut off just below the leaves. The outer envelope is composed 
of three layers overlapping each other, which are very fragile, 
considering the work they have to perform. 
The wasp itself is prettily marked, and although it is variable 
in colouring, can be recognised by the black anchor-shaped 
mark on the clypeus, and the squared black spot on the seg- 
ments of the abdomen. 
Another species of British Tree Wasp is the Campanular 
Wasp ( Vespa sylvestris), a species which has received a multi- 
tude of scientific names, but which is not variable in colour as ! 
that which has just been mentioned. Though it has a wider 
distribution than the Norwegian Wasp, it is scarcely so plentiful ■ 
an insect, and is remarkable for an occasional habit of making 
a subterranean nest like that of the common wasp. The 
Northern Wasp ( Vespa borealis or arbor ea :), is another of the 
pensile wasps, and is mostly found in the North of England and 
Scotland. Its nest is built in fir-trees. I may perhaps mention 
that the tree wasps may always be distinguished from their sub- 
terranean brethren by the colour of the antennae, workers and 
females having the scape black in the ground wasps, and those 
which build in trees having it yellow in both sexes. 
