Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/299

Rh, and formed of a strong hard clay, having its crust or shell of about four inches in thickness. On breaking up one of these nests—an operation which required the aid of a hatchet—it was found composed of combs of wax filled with fine honey. The bee is blackish in colour, not so taper in its shape as the European insect, but nearly of the same size; less irritable, but possessed of a sting. The most remarkable entomological fact stated by this writer, is the existence in Brazil and Paraguay of a honey gathering Wasp! When the statement appeared, it was supposed by Latreille and others, that, not being much versed in entomology, Azara had mistaken for an individual of the wasp family what was in reality one of the Melipona or Trigonis genus, common in South America. More recently, however, the researches of M. de St. Hilaire have confirmed the accuracy of the Spaniard; and it seems now an established fact that the insect provincially named Lecheguana, belonging to the genus Vespa (Polistes of Latreille), produces honey of a very excellent kind, which it stores up in cells for use during the season of the repose of vegetable life, and which differs from that produced by the bees only in being wholly and completely soluble in alcohol, leaving no residue; whereas bee-honey, when subjected to the same chemical process, deposits a crystallized saccharine matter. A figure of the nest constructed by this insect is given in Pl. XXVIII. It is formed of the same materials, and is of similar architecture with that of the European Wasp, viz. of woody fibres