Nests Made of Paper

a black a yellow paper wasp walks on the beginnings of its nest, two layers of paper tubes stacked on each other

Biological Strategy

Paper wasps

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Physically Assemble Structure

Living systems use physical materials to create structures to serve as protection, insulation, and other purposes. These structures can be internal (within or attached to the system itself), such as cell membranes, shells, and fur. They can also be external (detached), such as nests, burrows, cocoons, or webs. Because physical materials are limited and the energy required to gather and create new structures is costly, living systems must use both conservatively. Therefore, they optimize the structures’ size, weight, and density. For example, weaver birds use two types of vegetation to create their nests: strong, a few stiff fibers and numerous thin fibers. Combined, they make a strong, yet flexible, nest. An example of an internal structure is a bird’s bone. The bone is comprised of a mineral matrix assembled to create strong cross-supports and a tubular outer surface filled with air to minimize weight.

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Insects

Class Insecta (“an insect”): Flies, ants, beetles, cockroaches, fleas, dragonflies

Insects are the most abundant arthropods—they make up 90% of the animals in the phylum. They’re found everywhere on earth except the deep ocean, and scientists estimate there are millions of insects not yet described. Most live on land, but many live in freshwater or saltwater marshes for part of their life cycles. Insects have three distinct body sections: a head, which has specialized mouthparts, a thorax, which has jointed legs, and an abdomen. They have well-developed nervous and sensory systems, and are the only invertebrate that can fly, thanks to their lightweight exoskeletons and small size.

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Nests of paper wasps are made of paper-like material, created from wood and hardening saliva.

Image: Dan Lieberman / Hidden Wonders /

Paper wasp building nest

Nest of the paper wasp (polistes biglumis).

Image: Abalg / CC BY - Creative Commons Attribution alone

Paper wasp (Polistes biglumis) on nest

Last Updated May 1, 2020

References

“Three animals, for instance, have independently invented the making of paper. Paper wasps use small particles of wood gnawed off from trees and wood posts as their raw material, and they mix these fibres with their hardening saliva.” (Pallasmaa 1995:20)

“Three animals, for instance, have independently invented the making of paper…Some termites also make paper from wood particles, but they use their saliva or excreta as a cement to make a substance that resembles carton.” (Pallasmaa 1995:20)

“Nest architecture of the arboreal Neotropical termites Nasutitermes acajutlae (Holmgren) and N. nigriceps (Haldeman) is described, with special reference to carton inclusions or nodules found within the normal gallery matrix of some nests. Nutrient analyses of these nodules show that they have high cellulose and low cutin concentrations in comparison to normal nest carton. These data support the hypothesis that the nodule inclusions serve as a form of facultative food storage in some nests of these termite species. These cases appear to represent a rare situation in which food is not stockpiled or cultured by termites, but rather some partially processed, masticated food is incorporated into the nest matrix for future consumption…Unlike most termites, many species of Nasutitermes build arboreal carton nests composed of wood and salivary and fecal fluids (Light 1933), and occasionally other materials such as sand (Thorne & Haverty, pers. obs.). Most other nest-building termites build mounds on the ground (e.g., Emerson 1938), but nesting in trees has enabled species of Nasutitermes and several other genera to colonize and exploit a new habitat.” (Thorne et al. 1996:27-28)

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Animal Architecture

22/04/2014 | Ingo Arndt

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