HABITS AND BIOLOGY OF THE COMMON WASP 



321 



Table shoiving Numbers ami Distribution of Immature 



Stages within Nest. 



* In these cell-flats the individuals were actually counted, in the remainder the 

 numbers were obtained by calculation. 



These data, examined in the light of known facts 

 regarding the habits of the queen wasp and the periods 

 of development of the immature stages, yield many interest- 

 ing results. 



Age and Development of Nest and Colony. — After the 

 first workers have hatched from the earliest eggs laid by 

 the queen, the latter resigns to them her duties of builder 

 and nurse, and confines her attention to egg-laying. On 

 this account, and because of the regularity of the develop- 

 ment of the young stages in successive rings, I have assumed, 

 I think on safe grounds, that as soon as a cell is ready 

 for occupation the queen deposits an egg within it. The 

 rate of deposition of the eggs, therefore, gives a key to the 

 rate of building of the cells. 



Further, the rate of development of the immature stages 

 is fairly accurately known. Owen says that " In the common 

 wasp the larva is hatched 8 days after oviposition ; it grows 

 to its full size in 12 or 14 days, then spins its delicate hood, 

 casts its integument, . . . and after a passive pupa state 

 of Todays emerges a perfect insect."^ Other writers, while 

 unable to state the details of development from observation, 

 have given general adherence to Owen's statement, which 

 ' Owen, Invertebrate Animals^ p. 240. 



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