HABITS AND BIOLOGY OF THE COMMON WASP 323 



Viewing these numbers from the other end of the series, 

 let us follow the actual development of the nest from the 

 time when, say 5 or 6 days before the first egg was deposited, 

 the queen, a solitary builder, laid its first foundations. The 

 dates are reckoned from 27th July, the last working day 

 of the colony, on the evening of which its activity was 

 brought to an end. 



The builclinL,^ of the nest was commenced on 22nd April. 



Cell-fiat I was begun when the nest was 6 days old, on 28th April. 



The intervals in time between the beginnings of the 

 successive cell-flats were as follows : — 



Comb 2 was begun 32 days after comb i 



)5 3 )> '7 )) 2 



J) 



The most striking feature of these varying intervals is 

 their successive decrease in length as lower and lower cell- 

 flats are reached. This decrease is due to the gradual 

 hatching of more and more workers as the nest increases 

 in age, so that building proceeds more rapidly. There is 

 one exception to the regular, shortening of the building 

 stages in the above table : where the interval between the 

 beginnings of combs 5 and 6 is considerably longer than 

 the preceding interval. Comb 5, however, was begun on 

 5th July, just at the time when the bright warm days of 

 June and early July were succeeded by the dull wet weather 

 which characterised the later portion of July. Daily 

 thermometer readings taken in the garden at a height 

 of 4 ft. above the ground, and kindly supplied to me by 

 Mrs Elliot of Hollybush, show that during the 8 days while 

 comb 4 was being built the average maximum shade- 

 temperature between 9 a.m. and 9 P.M. was 69° F., and 

 the minimum 56" F. ; but that during the 16 days occupied 

 by the building of comb 6 the average maximum had fallen 



