148 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



1 on Salix at Lakeville. The unusually early occurrence of this 

 syrphid (before the appearance of the spring flowers) is probably 

 the reason that it has been so seldom taken. 



AN UNUSUAL COLOR IN A HORNET'S NEST. 



BY L. O. HOWARD. 



Recently the Bureau of Entomology has received a specimen 

 of the nest of the bald-faced hornet (Vespula maculata Linnaeus) 

 from Mr. Arthur D. Addison of Washington, D. C. This nest 

 was collected between Massachusetts and Cathedral Avenues 

 and is remarkable inasmuch as it is irregularly striped with 

 vivid blue. The blue stripes seem to be precisely of the same 

 texture as the mottled gray covering of the nest. It is pre- 

 sumed that the blue stripes in this nest were made from a kind 

 of building paper which workmen commonly use in the buildings 

 in the suburbs. Mr. Addison notes that this nest was far removed 

 from any building and it is doubtful where the wasps could have 

 found access to such paper. 



In discussing this paper Mr. Crawford stated that it was not at 

 all uncommon for nests of this hornet to have stripes in them. One 

 very often finds nests bearing a few very small white stripes evi- 

 dently made when the wasps discover a supply of white paper. 



The National Museum has on exhibit a very fine example of 

 colored nest from Barto, Pennsylvania. In this example there is 

 so much red that the nest may better be described as being red 

 with grayish stripes. In this, the color appears to be due to the 

 wasps having used cedar for the manufacture of their paper. 



In the opinion of Mr. Crawford the striping is due to the con- 

 centration of work by the wasps along a narrow stripe, then their 

 moving to another portion of the nest to work while allowing the 

 first part to dry, and also to the well known habit of the social 

 Hymenoptera when discovering a ready supply of building ma- 

 terial or food to concentrate their efforts to carry it away. In this 

 connection he stated that some accurate observations on both 

 actual work of building and on securing the building material ;tiv 

 greatly desired as our knowledge of these is very limited. 



