320 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



do not develop with the absokite regularity assumed in 

 calculations based upon the properties of a geometric circle. 

 The actual amount of error, as indicated by the results in 

 the two cell-flats examined in detail, does not appear to be 

 serious, for whereas in flat 2 theoretical calculation (to the 

 nearest square inch) gave the number of cells as 884, 

 enumeration showed that the number was actually 885 ; 

 and in flat 3, where the theoretical number was 1105, the 

 actual number was 1091 : the errors in the two cases 

 amounting to — o-ii and +1-29 per cent, respectively. 



I would suggest, however, that in future experiments of 

 a similar kind a record be kept of the actual number of cells 

 on each flat containing eggs, grubs, and larva; of first, second, 

 or subsequent broods, special care being taken to place in 

 their proper group grubs which, having just hatched from the 

 egg, are scarcely to be distinguished from it in size. The 

 interest of the results of such an enumeration would well 

 repay the labour it involves. 



The attention of the future investigator ought also to be 

 drawn to the fact that since there were no large drone or 

 queen cells in the nest which I examined in July, the worker- 

 containing cells could safely be reckoned as similar in size 

 throughout the nest ; but that in nests examined in late 

 summer and autumn, when the lower tiers of comb-flats are 

 entirely formed of large drone and queen cells, these at any 

 rate ought to be reckoned separately and individually. 



Numbers of Individnals in Nest. — The numbers of adults 

 were counted as they lay in the space surrounding the nest, 

 or between the combs. There were 417 worker wasps and 

 I queen. 



Calculations based upon readings obtained by the method 

 indicated above showed that the total comb area was almost 

 exactly 117 sq. ins., and that the total number of cells 

 amounted to 4217. 



The following table shows at a glance how these cells 

 were distributed throughout the cell-flats, and in what 

 proportion they were occupied by the various immature 

 stages of successive broods : — 



