1908 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 71 



up, that it had purloined from a butcher's shop or somebody's larder ; a specimen of the insect 

 popularly known as 'daddy-long-legs,' shorn of its wings and other encumbrances, especially 

 if the day be a windy one, for the purpose of lessening the difficulty of conveying such an 

 un wieldly creature through a disturbed atmosphere— for wasps have powers as nearly as 

 possible allied to reasoning ones, as has been observed upon other occasions as well as the one 

 recorded above ; or perchance a winged ant caught in the act of migration, is met at the 

 entrance to the nest by one, two, and sometimes three other attendants. These at once lend 

 their aid in cutting up the 'prey,' which they not only reduce to the consistency of pulp by 

 mastication, but to all appearance actually swallow. Having done this they separate, and 

 taking different courses, commence feeding the larvae which lie in their route. As they pass 

 over a cell, the larva therein contained, if hungry, protrudes its head and applies its mouth to 

 that of the attendant, who stops for a few seconds for the purpose of allowing it to sip its fill. 

 [This done, the latter moves on to another cell, where the process is repeated. If on the 

 approach of the attendant a larva does not require food, instead of protruding its head it 

 remains quiet, when the former passes on to another cell where its services may be required. 

 In this way an attendant will feed perhaps twenty larvae before the contents of its stomach, or 

 whatever else may have served as a receptacle for the food it has been dispensing, is exhausted, 

 when it again proceeds in quest of food, either leaving the nest to obtain it, or else taking part, 

 in the manner already described, with one which has just returned from foraging." 



It will be observed from the above account that the wasps feed their charges much as the 

 dove feeds her young, by supplying them with partly digested food from its own crop. 



Mr. Stone's observations upon the feeding of the wasp-larvje confirm those made by Mr. 

 Spence as recorded in Letter XI, Kirhy and Spences's Entomology, and by Willoughby and 

 R^umur before him. 



Vespa Germanica, Fabricius — like the European Vespa rtilgaris, Linneus — makes its nest 

 in a chamber in the ground, taking advantage of some natural hollow, or enlarging the run of 

 some small animal. I found such a nest by the roadside on the Island of Orleans last summer. 



Some years ago I took a nest of Vespa media, Olivier. I found it suspended from the 

 ceiling of a coach-house belonging to my highly-esteemed friend, the late I. J. Gibb, Esq., of 

 Como, P. Que. This nest was compact and smooth, and of the size of a cricket-ball. The 

 entrance was in the middle of the under side, and was ab^ut half-an-inch in diameter. 



The late P. H. Gosae in the Canadian Naturalist, page 269 describes the nest of Vespa 

 marginata, Kirby. He says : — 



"That is not a stone, although it looks so much like one, as you would find to your cost 

 if you planted your foot on it. The mowers have cut as near as they durst approach to it, for 

 it is a wasp's nesfc (Vespa marginata) and full of very irascible and formidable subjects, who 

 are not to be assaulted with impunity. These large round nests are generally attached to a 

 stone, often nearly covering it, and cannot easily be distinguished from it. They are made of 

 a tough whitish paper, manufactured by the wasp, of the minute particles which she abrades 

 from weather-beaten wood, and agglutinates with saliva, spread out into this form. This nest 

 consists of several layers, convex above, and projecting at the edges to shoot off the rain from 

 the comb within, which is made of the same substance, and contains young and pupse. You 

 may observe numbers of the wasps coming and going, and crawling busily about the nest, the 

 entrance to which is beneath the edge. " 



Vespa m,arginata, Kirby — Vespa consobrina, Saussure = Vespa arenaria, Fabricius. See 

 Cresson's Hymenoptera, page 290. 



I found a nest of this species last season in the open woods near Fort Number 2, Levis. 

 It was close to the ground, and was supported by some small stems of brush wood. I went 

 one cold day in October to obtain it, but somebody had forestalled me. 



