the elk; in another they are slender, and curved like the horns of a bull, and there are other species quite as bizarre in form. It is from these creatures, more especially from the first-mentioned, that the Pelopæus selects her victims, and it is evident that the jaws of the young Pelopæus must be exceedingly strong to be enabled to pierce their hard and well-armed bodies. Like the previously-mentioned insect, the Pelopæus makes a loud and cheerful buzzing while engaged in her work of building.

MR. BATES, who has described these two insects, has likewise mentioned a builder insect of the same order, called Melipona fasciculata. The genus to which this insect belongs is a very large one, containing some forty-five species, some of which are very common in woods, and being extremely small, measuring only the twelfth of an inch in length, they are very annoying to the traveller, getting into his nostrils and worrying him in various ways. Fortunately, they do not sting, but their bite is very sharp, and if made on a sensitive surface like the lining membrane of the nostril, can inflict very severe pain.

The form of habitation is various, according to the species, but they all use clay for that purpose, kneading it with their mandibles, and then passing it to the hind legs and pressing it into the hair-fringed depression which is popularly called the basket. Some species are accustomed to employ any casual crevice as a nest, stuffing it up with clay, and leaving only a little orifice through which they can pass. Others again make long tubes of clay, with trumpet-shaped mouths, and it is a remarkable fact that a number of the bees are always at the entrance as sentinels, just as is the case with the hive bee when wasps are abroad.

IN the "Zoologist," for 1864, p. 582, is a very interesting description, by Mr. P. H. Gosse, of the proceedings of insects which he appropriately calls the DAUBER WASPS, and which belong to the same genus as the Pelopæus mentioned above. One insect he identifies as Pelopæus flavipes, and the other is probably Pelopous spirifer. One of these insects is now before me, and a very pretty creature it is. In shape it exactly resembles that which is figured on page 353, but the colours are different. The general hue is deep brown-black, very shining in the abdomen, and softened by thick down upon the thorax.

It is, however, not a sombre insect, as the long footstalk of the abdomen is bright yellow, and the limbs are banded with the same lively hue. I strongly advise my readers to peruse this account, because it is full of detail, and contains much useful information about the method of working adopted by the insect, thus giving a clue to the proceedings of other insects which build habitations of similar materials. The length of the account is the reason why it cannot be transferred to these pages, and I must, therefore, give a short abstract.

Having seen many patches of a yellow mud on the walls and rafters, some as large as the closed fist and others of comparatively small dimensions, he asked some boys what they were, and was told that they were the nests of the Dirt-daubers. Finding that as the weather became warm the insects began to build, he set to work and watched them carefully. First he tried their sagacity by boring holes in their cells, in order to see whether the insects would fill them up, and afterwards by inserting foreign substances, such as a tin-tack and a piece of worsted, into the cell. The insect proved herself equal to the occasion, filled up the holes, and pulled out both the tack and the worsted. The next point was, to watch a nest from its foundation, and to see how it was built. The insect always went off, was absent for about a minute, and then returned, bearing in her jaws a lump of clay larger than her own head. The clay was perfectly plastic, and could be spread at once. The method by which the cell is formed must be given in the author's own words :

'About this time (August 18) the other species of Pelopaus began to be busy fabricating their artful thimble-shaped nests,

"It is difficult to convey by words an idea of their mode of working. The commencement of a cell was by laying down the load and working it into an oval ridge, one extremity of which was to be the apex of the thimble cell. The next load was laid on the ridge, but so as to be higher at the apex than at any other part, and made slightly concave. When the top was made, the work proceeded regularly by additions to the edges, which were smoothly laid on, and always in the same slanting direction that had been given at first, by raising one end of the incipient oval, so that an unfinished cell in any state of progress appears to be a cylinder cut off by a diagonal section.

"This is not casual but invariable, as the ridges remaining plainly mark the precise limits of every load.

"When a little more in length is finished than suffices for a single cell, the work ceases for awhile, an egg is laid in the bottom, though this end is generally uppermost, and spiders are brought in. This species usually, not always, selects a very beautiful species of Tetragnatha, bright green with white spots; and it is worth remarking that spiders are carried both with the jaws and feet, one of the forelegs of the spider being grasped in the mouth, while the body is held under that of the fly, and sustained by the anterior and middle legs and feet, the posterior pair being extended behind, as usual during flight.

'When the first cell is stocked, it is closed up by a transverse partition of mud, and the thimble goes on increasing as before. When finished, one will contain three or even four cells, and then a new one is commenced, adjoining and parallel with it. In both this and the other species, I believe that the enclosed grub eats only the abdomen of the spiders (which are so stung as to be helpless but not dead) as the cephalothorax and legs of each may generally be found afterwards in the cell."

The same writer noticed a remarkable instance of ingenuity in these insects. An empty ink-bottle about an inch and a half in length lay on the table. The neck of this bottle was one day seen to be stopped up with a substance like white pipe-clay, and when this was broken, the bottle was found to be stored with spiders. The fact was, that a Pelopæus had spied out the bottle, and thought that she had a fine opportunity of providing a home for her young without troubling herself to build a regular nest. A day or two afterwards, the Dauber returned to see after the nest, and finding that it had been disturbed, she entered the bottle, took out all the spiders, replaced them with fresh specimens, and then re-closed the mouth. It is evident from this fact, that the insect does not entirely abandon her young when she has completed and closed the nest.

Another curious discovery was also made while watching the Pelopæus. If the reader will refer to the illustration, he will see that the abdomen of the insect is supported on a very long and slender peduncle, or footstalk. Mr. Gosse was naturally anxious to discover how the insect could draw the abdomen out of the pupal skin when it came to change into its perfect condition.

On examining some specimens, he discovered the curious fact, that the pupal envelope did not sit closely to the body, but that it was as wide in the middle as at either end, so that when the insect came to assume its perfect form, the peduncle was quite loose in the centre of the envelope, and the abdomen could be drawn out without any difficulty.

These observations are peculiarly valuable, because they set at rest a question which was raised by several entomologists, who thought that the nests were made by some species of eumenes, and that the Pelopæus was a mere parasite upon them, like the cryptus, and many other of the ichneumonidæ.

IF the reader will refer to the large engraving, entitled "Mr. Stone's Wasp-nests," he will see a representation of four square boxes, each containing an object which would hardly be taken for a wasp's-nest at a little distance. Such, however, is the case; and these boxes are four selected examples out of a series of six which were built in Mr. Stone's house, and presented by him to the British Museum. The story of these nests is very remarkable, and shows how much we have to learn concerning the habits and instincts of insects.

In the month of August, 1862, a nest of the common WASP (Vespa germanica), was taken near Brighthampton, and handed over to Mr. Stone, who has long been in the habit of experimenting upon these insects. One extraordinary nest which was built by wasps under his auspices, has already been mentioned on page 256.

The nest was very much damaged by carriage, and Mr. Stone took it entirely to pieces, placing one or two small combs inside a square wooden box with a glass front, and supporting them by a wire which passed through the combs to the roof of the box. He then fixed the box in a window, so as to allow the insects free ingress and egress through a hole in the back.

About three hundred of the workers were then collected, placed in the box, and well supplied with sugar and beer. They immediately began to work, and their first object was to cover the combs with paper. They worked with great rapidity, and in two days had formed a flask-shaped nest, having covered both the combs and the wire, beside plastering large sheets of paper over the sides of the box. They did not attempt to build upon