35o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fireside. Here, however, the attentions are lavished, not only on the 

 newcomer, but on those who were the first to meet him, and plainly 

 the meaning of the whole performance is simply the distribution of 

 nectar by one of the wasps which has just returned from a foraging 

 expedition. Earlier in the season, this nectar is regurgitated into the 

 mouths of the feeding larvse, but in their absence it is stored in the 

 cells or serves directly as food for the adults. 



Finally, I think the habits Polistes acquires may bear a decided 

 relation to its rhythm of activity and repose. If we watch any wasp 

 community, we see that periods of general sluggishness alternate with 

 furies of activity and, in the case of the individual, any marked 

 exertion is always promptly followed by great quiescence. Of course, 

 what actually happens to the nervous system when impressions are 

 fixed and habits formed is largely a matter of conjecture. But in the 

 establishment of any reaction, it is generally thought that the repair of 

 the nervous element is quite as important as the change which it under- 

 goes while the reaction is taking place. And it would seem that the 

 delicate nervous organization here implied would lend itself readily to 

 the 'stamping in' of reactions or trains of reactions. That is, a 

 particular performance, once called forth, would the more readily occur 

 had a period of repose prevented the reception of any intervening 

 impression and brought about the restitution of the nervous mechanism 

 affecting the reaction in question. 



The period of repose on the nest is usually terminated by one of 

 the wasps starting up and commencing an examination of the cells of 

 the nest. Others immediately follow suit, until the whole colony is in 

 a tumult. But it is not the example of the first wasp that is responsible 

 for this, only the external stimulus furnished the sleeping colony 

 by the movements of the first wasp on the nest. Simple tests prove this. 

 Godart relates how the colonies of Bombus have a trumpeter-bee, whose 

 duty it is to rouse the colony to work in the morning. If this bee is 

 removed, another takes its place the following day. An observer of a 

 wasp colony might easily believe that similar duties had been delegated 

 to particular wasps. But here, and probably in the case of Bombus, 

 it is the fact that any external stimulus, such as a loud noise or jarring 

 the nest, produces the same effect. The wasp examines the cells not 

 because it is aroused to a sense of duty by seeing what the others are 

 doing, but because this is the habitual response whenever it is gently 

 stimulated while on the nest, by any means whatever. 



In summarizing these observations, it may be said that, although 

 they are perhaps hardly extensive enough to warrant definite con- 

 clusions concerning wasp intellection, they nevertheless indicate several 

 things : 



