. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. VESPIDAE WASPS' NESTS 83. Fig. 33.—Section of nest of Chartergus chaiiarius. South America. 0, Entrance. (After de Saussure.) A very remarkable wasp's nest is preserved in the British ilusenm of Natural History; it is considered to be the work of Monteziimia dimiddata Sauss. an Eumenid wasp ; it is a large mass of cells encircling the branch of a tree, which therefore pro- jects somewhat after the manner of an axle through the middle: the cells are very numerous, and are quite as regular as those of the most perfect of the combs of bees: the mass is co
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. VESPIDAE WASPS' NESTS 83. Fig. 33.—Section of nest of Chartergus chaiiarius. South America. 0, Entrance. (After de Saussure.) A very remarkable wasp's nest is preserved in the British ilusenm of Natural History; it is considered to be the work of Monteziimia dimiddata Sauss. an Eumenid wasp ; it is a large mass of cells encircling the branch of a tree, which therefore pro- jects somewhat after the manner of an axle through the middle: the cells are very numerous, and are quite as regular as those of the most perfect of the combs of bees: the mass is coA'ered with a very thick layer of paper, the nest having somewhat the external appearance of half a cocoa-nut of twice the usual size. AjKtica 2^cdlida, a South American Insect, forms a nest in a somewhat similar manner to Polistes, but it is covered on its outer aspect by a beautiful paper skin, so that the nest looks somewhat like a toadstool of large size attached to the branch of a tree. The nests of the Insects of the genus Polyhia—which we have already mentioned as located by de Saussm-e in his unsatis- factory group Poecilocyttares—usually have somewhat the form and size of pears or apples suspended to twigs of trees or bushes ; these little habitations consist of masses of cells, wrapped in wasp-paper, in which there are one or more orifices for ingress and egress. Smith says that the combs in the nest of F. pygmaea are of the most exquisite construction, and that it is by no means an uncommon circumstance to find the outer envelope of the nest ornamented with patches of delicate hexagonal tracery. This nest is about the size of an orange. We have already noticed the variety of nests formed by our British species of the genus Vespa; in other parts of the world the edifices formed by species of Vespa attain a very large size. V. craironiformis in China, and V. velutina in India, make nests several feet or even yards in length, inhabited by an enormous number of ind
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