INCIDENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON A QUEEN OF 



POLISTES PALLIPES LEPELLETIER DE SAINT 

 FARGEAU WHILE FOUNDING A COLONY, 

 INCLUDING FRAGMENTARY BIOLOGI- 

 CAL NOTES. 



By A. A. Girault. 



Observations such as the following are not of much value 

 because of their fragmentary nature ; nevertheless, they may 

 serve to confirm others made previously and, doubtless, will add 

 one or two facts that are both novel and useful. If this is so, 

 they are placed on record without hesitation. These notes will 

 be of most importance from the biological standpoint. They 

 record the following important facts : ( i ) . Duration of the egg, 

 larval and pupal stages. (2). Disappearance of the queen before 

 emergence of any workers, spoils the colony. (3). Activity of 

 the mother wasp up to the time of the appearance of the first 

 workers. (4). The larvae of the first workers, at least, cap their 

 own cells and emerge from them without assistance. 



The observations were made quite incidentally while stationed 

 in the field at Centralia, Illinois. The field station consisted of 

 an ordinary one-story frame cottage situated in the rear of a 

 farm and it was on this building that the queens of pallipes estab- 

 lished their nests. Four of them were built on various parts of 

 the cottage and one other — a fifth — was easily accessible, situ- 

 ated as it was on the under ledge of a low window of an adjoining 

 outhouse. One of the first four nests was in direct view from 

 the interior of the building and it is upon this nest that the 

 observations were made, the others serving as controls. The nest 

 was hanging mouth down from the upper side of the principal 

 doorway (west side), its attachment consisting of a flat flansre 



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