The nest is made originally by the queen who makes a flask-shaped structure on a roof beam, or similar. This is one nearly complete, in which she lays the first batch of eggs to create workers to make the main nest:
The new paper added is wet and she is working backwards leaving an inch of new paper. Below is a worker doing the same thing later on the main nest:
The dark line of paper can be seen on the edge she is working on. This leads to the formation of the football-sized nest with help from many workers:
The paper constructed is brought in from various sources locally and so has a very attractive appearance:
This large nest has many tiers of honey-comb cells stacked within it. No honey, just eggs and then larvae.
This species is a good one to study, while others can be dangerous.
2 comments:
Fascinating pictures and commentary.
Cheers Gareth, a brilliant addition to the discussion.
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