THE BIOLOGY OF THE MUD-DAUBING WASPS 



61 



we shall select the complete ones from the entire series. 

 43 nests were of the following sizes: 



These 



This series shows no pronounced mode. The nests were 

 gathered in the winter, hence we have reason to believe that 

 they were as nearly complete as were available. It may be, 

 however, that the population of mother wasps which constructed 

 these nests included old wasps which may have worked all 

 summer on the nest, as well as newly hatched ones which had 

 only a short time in which to build a few cells before being over- 

 taken by winter. 



The contents of all these cells were recorded. In addition, 

 the broken nests were likewise examined and tabulated; these 

 made 709 more cells. The table below is a summary of the 

 data of these three annual collections, comprising 1,282 cells. 



