HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



41 



NATURAL HISTORY JOTTINGS. 

 On Wasps, chiefly. 



[Continued from />. 17.] 



AUGUST 6th.— In another stone-faced earthen 

 dyke there are two wasps' nests, one of which 

 belongs to the Vespa sylvestris and the other to the I '. 

 rufa. In the former there are males and large females 

 or queens present, as well as the workers. In the 

 burning-out of the latter no queen was obtained, and 

 only one male ; but both may have been present in 

 numbers exceeding one, and been destroyed in the 

 destruction of the nest. 



In a small meadow of barely four acres, the hay of 

 which has shortly been cut, there are no fewer than 

 six nests of wasps, three of which are built in one of 

 the dykes and three in the ground. Of the three 

 nests in the ground two belong to the Vespa vulgaris 

 and one belongs to the V. rufa ; and two of them, 

 one pertaining to each of the species, are well out 

 into the field, the third being much nearer the hedge. 

 Of the three in the north dyke of the field, on its 

 southern side, one pertains to the V. rufa, one to 

 the V. sylvestris, and one to the V. vulgaris ; the 

 first-mentioned being the westernmost, the second 

 within twenty paces of it to the east, whilst the third 

 will not be much more than the same distance from 

 the second nest. On the western side of the first 

 nest, that of the V. rufa, and only nine paces from 

 it is a small nest of the common humble-bee {Bombus 

 terrcstris) situated behind the facing stones of the 

 dyke, as are also the nests of the V. sylvestris and 

 V. vulgaris, that of the V. rufa being at a point 

 where there are no stones ; and nearly in the middle 

 of the field, in the level ground, is a nest of the 

 orange-tailed humble-bee (B. lapidaria). The 

 meadow is a moist one, and is overrun with the water- 

 rat or vole {Arvicola amphibius) and the field vole 

 (A. agrestis), being in many parts literally riddled 

 and furrowed with the burrows and runs of the former 

 quadruped ; the abundance of these two species of 

 vole, not only in this particular meadow, but also 

 in other of the meadows and pastures around, will 

 probably account for the apparent ease with which 

 the various colonies of the four species of wasp 

 and the two species of humble-bee enumerated have 

 been established, and consequently in part for their 

 abundance there. 



Standing by two of the nests that are built in the 

 ground, one of which belongs to the Vespa vulgaris, 

 and the ether to the V. rufa, both nests being large 

 and strong ones, I observed that at both the worker 

 wasps were very busily engaged in bringing up out 

 of the nest-cavity pellets of earth and small stones, 

 and flying away out of sight carrying them in their 

 mandibles. These pellets were frequently of the 

 size of a small pea, and then were with difficulty 

 borne away, the wasp not seldom striving vainly for 



a longer or shorter period being able to take wing 

 with its burden. Sometimes the pellet proved 

 altogether too large or heavy to be thus carried off, 

 when the V. vulgaris would carry it down again into 

 the nest-cavity, possibly to store it in some recess to 

 be there found, the entrance to the nest being small 

 and direct from the surface, not recessed at all ; and 

 once I observed a wasp of this species bring up out 

 of the cavity a large thin wedge-shaped piece of 

 stone or brick which was too heavy to be borne 

 away, and which was also again carried down into 

 the burrow. In the case of the V. rufa, the pellet 

 when too large or heavy was deposited on the sides 

 of the rather large recess at the entrance or mouth 

 of the burrow ; this nest being only a little distance 

 underground. The nest of this latter species con- 

 tained many of the large females, or queens, as well 

 as males ; and its shell or case was composed of thin, 

 fine in texture and moderately tough paper laid on in 

 large sheets, not in small convex, coarse, brittle, 

 shell-like pieces, as was the nest of the former, which 

 contained neither queens nor males, or drones. 



August 9th. — This forenoon, as the wind blew a 

 gale from the west, and there were alternations of 

 sunshine and cloud and scuds of rain, the nest of the 

 Vespa sylvestris was successfully taken from the 

 north dyke of the little meadow. It lay in a cavity 

 immediately behind two of the facing stones, and 

 much resembled another of the rounded grey stones, 

 •uch as are much used in dyking, the entrance to the 

 nest-cavity being a small hole between two of the 

 stones lying in front of it. This nest was of the 

 usual form, turnip-shaped ; and it contained three 

 tiers of comb, the second of which contained many 

 large cells occupied by the large females, and, 

 adjoining them, a few smaller ones occupied by 

 males, all of which were about ready for emerging. 

 There were also many of these large females or 

 queens, as well as a few males or drones, in the nest 

 when taken. In the comb there were also larvae of 

 all sizes from shortly hatched to about full-grown, as 

 well as pupae or nymphs in all stages of evolution ; 

 but I only observed one ovum. Such was the force 

 of the wind, that, standing on the windward side of 

 the nest, there was little danger of getting stung, as 

 the wasps could not cope with the gale blowing ; 

 and the occupants of the nest, after it had been 

 dislodged and removed out into the open field, were 

 easily knocked down and secured. 



August 1 8th. — A nest of the Vespa rufa taken at 

 dusk this evening out of a stone-faced earthen dyke, 

 on its southern side, contained three tiers of comb, 

 and many of the large females or queens. This 

 species of wasp is either remarkably mild in disposi- 

 tion, or it is comparatively lethargic, as not one of 

 them flew at us whilst taking out the nest from a 

 cavity behind the stones, cutting it up and extracting 

 the comb : from prior experience in the taking of 

 the nest of this species, in the bright and hot 



