1911] Girault, Observations on Polistes. 51 



in the crease or angle between two sides of the cell. The queen did 

 not leave after 5 p. m. and so far its working day has been between 

 the hours of about 11 a. m. and 4 :30 p. m., or about five and one-half 

 hours. 



The new cell is now about 6 mm. deep by about 5 mm. wide across 

 its open mouth and is bellshaped. The newly deposited egg is at- 

 tached to one side of the cell's interior in an angle as mentioned, and 

 is fastened by the anterior end, which tapers somewhat. It is creamy 

 white, 2.1 mm. long, ovate, the cephalic end slenderer, 1 mm. in great- 

 est width, hence twice as long as wide, its surface to the eye smooth 

 and opaque, but in reality (%-inch objective, 1-inch optic, Bausch 

 and Lomb) it is uniformly roughened like the surface of leather. The 

 attachment at the cephalic end is formed by a short membranous 

 petiole ; cephalic end translucent ; micropyle inconspicuous ; chorion 

 yielding, egg easily crushed, plump. Day fair, slightly warmer. 



May 2If : — The queen wasp did not leave her nest at all today : at 

 rest in her usual position. Day cloudy ; dropping rain at 7 a. m., 

 becoming steady and harder at 9 a. m. and so through the day. 



At 10 :20 a. m. in the rain, a nest of one of the four other queens, 

 mentioned previously, was taken after capturing the queen and liber- 

 ating her in one of the empty, unused rooms of the cottage with 

 another nestless queen (captured in a room at 4 p. m., May 22 ; 

 captured in the attic of a farm house). The two wasps were supplied 

 with water and a partly decayed banana for food.* The nest taken 

 was the one fastened to the lower ledge of a window of an outhouse, 

 three feet up from the ground ; it was in the same stage of construc- 

 tion as the one under direct observation. Hence, it was of nearly 

 the same general size and shape, the , differences between them not 

 easily observable, but many of a detailed character. The nest con- 

 tained eleven cells, the eleventh about three-fourths completed (in 

 relation to the average size of the others) ; all cells contained a single 

 egg. The nest measured three-quarters of an inch long (seven-six- 

 teenths inch being the distance from base or attachment to petiole 

 to apex of central cell) and one-half inch wide, the petiole itself 

 three-sixteenths of an inch long. The individual cells varied in depth 

 from the center outward, the three central cells (leading down directly 



* The nestless queen disappeared. The other fed sometimes on the 

 banana and was once observed resting on her old nest, but she never 

 showed any signs of adopting it, probably because ants very soon carried 

 off the eggs within the cells and also the food droplets. She was not 

 further observed. 



