538 Short Communications ;-— 



circumstances are the following: — "On May 22. 1832," 

 says Mr. Hewlett, " we had a swarm of bees. For some 

 weeks previous to this an empty hive had stood on the shelf 

 which was above the resting-place of our hive, and on remov- 

 ing this for the purpose of hiving the swarm, a wasp flew 

 forth, leaving its nest depending from the top of the hive. 

 This nest resembles, in every respect, the one taken last year, 

 and which Mr. Whitfield has now in his possession. We 

 watched carefully, in the hope that the wasp would return ; 

 nor were we disappointed : in about half an hour it came 

 back, and we were fortunate enough to catch it. We soon 

 killed it by prussic acid, and it is now in Mr. Whitfield's 

 possession." taa bah. Jonmja I .noixh8 Ijj abniKng 8*fl£m 

 The wasp Mr. Whitfield has been kind enough to lend 

 us ; and, on submitting it to Mr. J. D. C. Sowerby for illus- 

 tration, we solicited him to communicate any information he 

 could respecting it; and he has favoured us with the fol- 

 71 lowing remarks : — " The wasp before me, re- 



presented in Jig. 71. j appears to be a large, 

 female of ^espa britannica which had just com- 

 menced her operations towards establishing a 

 colony in the empty hive, in the same way that 

 those females of the common wasp (J^espa vul- 

 garis), which survive the winter, are accustomed 

 to do in a hole in the earth. V. britannica. 

 is nearly as large as the V. vulgaris, but wants the black 

 spots upon the joints of the abdomen, and has only two 

 yellow spots upon the scutellum in place of four." - 



In the Penny Magazine for Nov#njfe*r jfcfiM>M& $$p*l%&r- 

 Ftfj&l fl^isdMJoint^stingi (^e^^ttPHbtf^mp^^itqateiiijli^J 

 ts«tedobj!i(an3tli-(^fr£^ 



one of a section) of a wasp's nest pendent over a bog, from a 

 branch of a willow tree. It is not stated by which species of 

 wasp the nest had been constructed; and the writer speaks as 

 if not aware of the existence of more than one species, as he 

 says, " I have seen many [nests of wasps], but all, with this 

 exception, situated in banks, walls, or the ground ; but never 

 suspended above the surface, or exposed to view." Mr. Do- 

 vaston, in " Chit-chat, No. II." p. 6. of the present Volume, 

 pleasingly tells us, that " last summer a female wasp planted 

 on the ceiling of the piazza of his house, and rapidly increased, 

 her colony, who suspended their flaky ball of streaky olive 

 papery folds close to the door ; yet was no person stung or 

 molested all the season." — J. D. sJmiun djiw 



, Vespa campanaria. — At a friend's house at Maida Hill, I 

 lately met with the nest of a colony of Fespa campanaria 



