" L' Intelligence des Betes." In i8mo. Paris, 1864,

%12 THE INSECT WORLD,

revive, and begin alone the construction of a new nest. They then lay workers' eggs, which are not long in furnishing them a whole regiment of devoted and active assistants. These traits are pretty nearly the same for the different species of wasps, the only difference being in the way in which they build their nests.

Fig. 350. — Exterior of a Wasp's Nest on a branch of a tree.

We have already said that the common wasp makes its nest in the ground. A gallery, of about an inch and a half in diameter, leads to the nest, situated at a depth which varies from six inches to two feet. "It is," says Reaumur, "a small subterranean town, which is not built in the style of ours, but which has a symmetry of its own. The streets and the dwelling-places are regularly distributed. It is even

HYMENOPTERA. 373

surrounded with walls on all sides. I do not give this name to the side of the hollow in which it is situated; the walls I allude to are only walls of paper, but strong enough, nevertheless, for the uses for which they are intended." Generally, the shape of the outside of a wasp's nest is spherical or oval, sometimes conical. Its diameter is

Fig. 351. — Interior of a Wasp's Nest, after Reaumur.

bout from twelve to sixteen inches, its surface, which resembles mass of bivalve shells, has one hole for entrance, and another for xit, just large enough to allow of one single wasp passing in or out It the same time (Fig. 350).

The wasps' nest is composed, in the interior, of fifteen or sixteen lorizontal galleries, arranged in storeys, and supported by numerous 3illars of separation. We give here (Fig. 351) a section and view of

the interior^ drawn from memory by Reaumur.* The cakes forming the combs are composed of hexagonal cells, which are always used as cradles, never as storehouses. They open below. The exterior envelope of the nest is made with leaves of a sort of greyish, very gummy paper, which is applied layer by layer. Reaumur has given a very detailed account of the way in which these insects construct their nests.t They collect fibres of wood — which are their raw material — make them into a sort of coarse lint, which they reduce to balls, and carry between their legs to the nest. These balls are next stuck on to the work already begun. Then the insect stretches them out, flattens them, and draws them into thin layers, as a bricklayer spreads mortar with his trowel. The wasp works with extreme quickness, always backwards, so that it may have incessantly before its eyes the work it has done: the movement of its mandibles is even quicker than that of its legs.

Towards the end of summer the nest may contain 3,000 workers, and many females, who live together in perfect harmony. The number of males exceeds that of the females. A female weighs, by herself, as much as three males or six workers. With the exception of those which are occupied in building and in taking care of the eggs, all wasps go out hunting during the day. They are carnivorous, and may be seen attacking other insects, which they tear to pieces after having killed, so as to carry the bits to their nests, where thousands of mouths are clamouring for their food. The wasp pays great attention to the vines. It penetrates also into the interior of our houses, and infests the butchers' shops; but this the butchers do not much mind, for the wasp drives away the flies which would lay their eggs on the meat and thus contribute to its corruption. As the winter approaches, the wasps go out less and less, and very soon cease to do so at all. The greater number then die, huddled up in their nest. A few females only, as we have said, get through the cold season. They sleep with their wings and legs folded up, which gives them the appearance of chrysalides. They can nevertheless sting in this state, as M. Guerin-Meneville found out to his cost. The spring wakes them up, and they then found new colonies. '* It is at this season," says M. Maurice Girard, in his book on the "Metamorphoses of Insects," "that, with a little trouble, it would be easy to diminish in a very perceptible degree the number of wasps, which are, later, so destructive to the fruit, by catching in

♦' Memoires," tome vi., planche 14, p. 167. + Ibid.^ tome vi., p. 177.

tiets the females, which might be attracted in quantities by means of the blossom of the black currant." This is a useful hint to gardeners. The Hornets are distinguished from other wasps by their great size. They make their nests in the trunks of old trees, perforating the sound wood to arrive at the heart, which is rotten, or hollowing for themselves a hole, which they clear out by the gallery which leads to it. In this hole they construct first a dome suspended to the top by a footstalk; then a series of combs composed of cells,

Fig. 352.— Hanging Hornet's Nest

hanging the first to this dome, the second to the first, and so on, by stalks or pillars of a paper-like substance. When fixed under roofs, these insects have often the form of an elongated pear. Fig. 352 represents one of these nests, after Re'aumur. The societies of hornets contain fewer members than those of the common wasp; at most 200 insects. The Polistes are a peculiar kind of wasp, smaller than the others, slender, with the abdomen tapering towards the base. The construction of their nests is more simple, having no envelopes, as shown in Fig. 353. They attach them to the stems of broom, furze, ^x other shrubs, by a footstalk, or pedicle^ They are like little

THE INSECT WORLD.

376 paper bouquets, composed of from twenty to thirty cells, grouped in circle. The Card-making Wasp of Cayenne (Chartergus niduians, Fig. 354) is a consummate artist. Its nest represents a sort of box or bag, made of a substance resembling cardboard, so fine and so white

Fig. 353. — Nest of Polistcs gallica.

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 architectural point of view, the card-making wasp is almost superior to the bee, for the latter does not huild its house, it on\y furnishes it, as Latreille remarks with truth. The Brazilian species of Chartergus, which the inhabitants call Lecheguana,* manufactures a honey, the use of which is not without danger, as it occasions vertigo and sharp pains in the stomach. The t'ig- 354- naturalist, Auguste Saint-Hilaire, during his The Card-making Wasp {Chartergus nidiilans). 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 larvae are carnivorous, and the female is obliged to bring them living insects. The commonest of these solitary wasps belong to the genus Odynerus.

Hence the scientific name, Chartergus lechegzmna. — Ed.

This insect (Fig. 355) makes its nest in the stalk of a bramble or briar (Fig. 358) with a mortar which it prepares. The larva (Fig. 356) lines its cell with a silky cocoon. The last egg laid is hatched the

Fig- 355. — A species of Odynerus. fij- 356-— Larva 7f the Fig.the 357.—Odynerus.Pupa of Odynerus.

first; then come the others, in an inverse order from that in which they were deposited. If it had been in the other order, the insects

Fig. 358.— Nest of a i Odynerus in the stem of a bramble.

could not have come out of the cells without destroying on their way the less advanced pupa (Fig. 357). Ants.

The habits of the Ants are as remarkable as the habits of the bees. In their marvellous republics each one has his fixed duties to-perform, of which he acquits himself willingly and without constraint. In consequence of their habits of foresight and frugaHty, ease reigns in the dwellings of these little animals, which become attached to their nest by a feeling of patriotism. Woe betide him who disturbs them in their occupations, or destroys their house! Like bees, they form a regular republic, composed — first, of males; secondly, of 1females; thirdly of neuters, or workers. We shall see, further on, the labours and the part played by each one of these three orders of

fij- 356-— Larva 7f the Odynerus. 56-— Larva Odynerus.

Fig. 358.— Nest of a i Odynerus in the stem of a bramble.

Ants are divided into a great number of species, which have been carefully described by De Geer, Latreille, and Peter Huber, the son of the celebrated blind man who wrote the history of bees. All these species have, however, some general traits in common, by which they may be easily distinguished from all other insects. Ants have a slim body on long legs. The workers are stouter and smaller than the males; and these last are smaller than the females. The males have large and prominent eyes, whilst the eyes of the workers and females are small. Ants are provided with antennae, bent in the form of an elbow, with which they examine everything they meet, and which seem to

^'g- 359'~Red ^nt. Male magnified. Fig. 360. — Brazilian Umbrella Ant. (^Myrinica fiidra.) {Aiia ccpkalotes.)

assist them in the communication of their ideas. Two horny, very strong mandibles serve them at the same time as pincers, tweezers, scissors, pick-axe, fork, and sword. A thin short neck joins the head to the thorax, to which, in the case of the males and females, are attached four large veiny wings. The workers only have no wings. Of the three pairs of legs, the hind ones are the longest. Each pair is armed with a spur, and fringed witl) very short hairs, which serve the purpose of brushes. The abdomen, large, short, oval, or square, is always most voluminous in the females.

There are three genera of ants which we shall mention. The Myrinicce have two knobs to the pedicle, by which the abdomen is attached to the thorax; the Poncrce only one. In these two genera, the females and the neuters have a sting, and the larvae do not spin a cocoon in which to change into pupa. Lastly, the FormiccB — ants properly so called — have but one knob on the pedicle of ' the

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