164 
STRANGE DWELLINGS. 
mouths, a peculiarity which would hardly be noticed in a single 
ceil, but which produces the spreading outline when a number I 
of them are massed together. 
Some of the cells, those in the middle for example, are much i 
longer than the others, and in the specimens in the British j 
Museum many of them are closed at the mouth, showing that 1 
the insect is within, and has not yet attained its perfect state. ; 
Those on the circumference, however, are much shorter, and are \ 
entirely empty, not having been yet occupied. It is very 
possible that these cells would have been lengthened had the 
insects been left to themselves. j 
Although the circular shape is mostly the rule with these 
combs, so that they look something like withered dahlias or 
chrysanthemums, it is not the invariable form. If the reader 
will look at the lower figure in the illustration, he will see that 
it is much wider than long, and is apparently composed of two 
of the circular combs fixed together. 
Now comes the curious part of the structure. The combs are 
not fastened directly to the branches, but are attached to foot- 
stalks which spring from their centre, and are firmly cemented j 
upon the branch or twig. This group of cells is copied from jj 
the specimen in the British Museum, but ought to have been | 
reversed, so that the mouths of the cells hang downwards. The f 
observer should notice the wonderful manner in which the j 
balance is preserved, the footstalk occupying as nearly as pos- 1 
sible the centre of gravity. ] 
The footstalks are made of the same papier-mache like sub- 
stance as the cells, only the layers are so tightly compressed 
together that they form a hard, solid mass, very much like the 
little pillars which support the different stories of an ordinary \ 
wasp’s nest, but of much greater size. The position of the combs § 
is extremely variable, some being nearly horizontal, and others 
perpendicular, as shown in the illustration. These nests came 
from Bareilly in the East Indies. 
We now come to the pensile lepidoptera, of which a number 
of specimens will be mentioned. They all belong to the moths, 
