Saw-flies, Gall-flies, Ichneumons 
5 ° : 
chewed-up bits of weathered wood gathered from old fences or outbuildings; 
“ round the swampy edges of ponds or in wet ditches wasps may be seen 
gathering tough herbaceous filaments which they felt up into a texture 
stronger and better able to resist the wind and rain than a paper made of 
wood scrapings.” The moulding 
of the pulp at the nest has been 
observed carefully by Ormerod 
in the case of two English spe¬ 
cies of Vespa “It appeared,” 
says Ormerod, “that when a 
wasp came home laden with 
building materials she did not 
immediately apply these, but flew 
into the nest for about half a 
minute, for what purpose I could 
not ascertain. Then emerging 
she promptly set to work. 
Mounted astride on the edge of 
one of the covering sheets, she 
pressed her pellet firmly down 
with her fore legs till it adhered 
to the edge, and, walking back¬ 
wards, continued this same pro¬ 
cess of pressing and kneading till 
the pellet was used up, and her 
track was marked by a short dark cord lying along the thin edge to which she 
had fastened it. Then she ran forwards, and, as she returned again back- 
Fig. 714 .—Polistes sp. a, nest; b, young larva; 
c, older larva; d, pupa; e, adult. (All one 
and one-half times natural size except nest, 
which is much reduced.) 
Fig. 715.—The single-comb nest of a hornet, Polistes sp. (One-half natural size.) 
wards over the same ground, she drew the cord through her mandibles, 
repeating this process two or three times till it was flattened out into a little 
