HYMENOPTERA. 379 
® 
little paper bouquets, composed of from twenty to thirty cells 
grouped in a circle. 

Fig. 353.- Nest of Polistes gallica. 
The Card-making wasp of Cayenne (Chartergus nidulans, Fig 
304) is a consummate artist. Its nest represents a sort of box or 
bag, made of a substance resembling card- 
board, so fine and so white that the best 
worker in that material would be deceived 
by it. This nest has only one single hole 
at its base; each of the combs it contains 
is likewise pierced by a hole in its centre, 
to afford a passage to the wasps. In an Fig. 854.—The Card-making 
architectural point of view, the card- ay Ae Fer gerne 
making wasp is almost superior to the bee, for the latter does not 
build its house, it only furnishes it, as Latreille remarks with 
truth. The Brazilian species of Chartergus, which the in- 
habitants call Lecheguana,* manufactures a honey, the use of 
which is not without danger, as it occasions vertigo and sharp 
pains in the stomach. The naturalist, Auguste Saint-Hilaire, 
during his sojourn in Brazil, himself experienced ill effects from 
eating it. 
There are, moreover, solitary wasps, which make their cells in 
holes which they scoop out in the ground, or in the stalks of 
certain plants. In the adult state these live on honey; but their 
larvee are carnivorous, and the female is obliged to bring them 
living insects. The commonest of these solitary wasps belong to 

* Hence the scientific name, Chartergus lecheguana.—Ep. 

