1903. CarpknTKR & Be:rksford.— Vespa austriaca &> V. riifa. 223 



shows that the only fact in support of the statement was the 

 presence of nests on trees in the w^ood where Vespa arborea 

 occurred. No evidence is given to connect the insects cap- 

 tured with these nests. 



All students of V. austriaca have been struck bjMts similarity 

 to V. 7'2ifa, and the suggestion that the two wasps are not 

 specifically distinct was made fifty years agobySchenck ('53). 

 He considered V. austriaca as a mere variety of V. rufa^ bearing 

 the same relationship to the latter as V- saxojiica is believed 

 bj^^many to bear to F. 7torvegica. This suggestion has lately 

 been revived by Cuthbert ('02), who is struck by the constant 

 association of V. austriaca with V. rtifa in Ireland. 



During the last few years, however, the opinion has become 

 established that V. austriaca has no workers, but breeds as an 

 inquiline in the nest of some other species. This suggestion 

 as to its habits was first made by Moraw4tz ('64) and supported 

 by Schmiedeknecht ('81) who, on the ground of its supposed 

 cuckoo-parasitism, proposed a new genus — Pseudovespa — for its 

 reception. Holmgren i^^:^ stated that on an islet of the Baltic 

 off Stockholm he had found V. austriaca " comme parasite ou 

 invitee chez une congenere V. germanicay We may be par- 

 doned for asking on what evidence this statement rests. But 

 the careful observations of Robson ('98) have been accepted 

 as showing clearly the inquiline relationship of V. austriaca 

 to V. 7ufa. 



For in July, 1887, Robson observed a worker of Vespa riifa 

 dragging from a nest the decapitated and mutilated carcase of 

 a queen F". austriaca. It was not until ten years later that he 

 recognised this queen as belonging to the latter species. At 

 the time, he considered her to be the dead foundress of the 

 rufa nest, and this opinion he thought well confirmed, when, 

 having taken the nest shortly afterwards, he discovered no old 

 queen within. There were, however, four newly-emerged 

 young queens, and in the cells vacated by them fresh eggs had 

 been laid, presumably by some of the workers. In 1897, having 

 determined as V. aiistriaca the mutilated queen which he had 

 seen dragged out ten years before, Robson made a careftil 

 examination of the nest, which he had fortunately preserved. 

 In the central cells of the lower of the two layers of comb, he 



A 2 



