236 [September, 1901. 



On examining the caTity from which we had just taken the nest, a considerable 

 number of wasps were seen crawling about amongst the debris, making no attempt 

 to fly, but burying themselves amongst the scraps of paper, and even burrowing 

 into the earth round the sides. They were all austriaca males, and we extracted 

 them one by one from their hiding places, and put them to join their comrades in 

 the insect cage. Amongst them was discovered an austriaca queen, which, by her 

 frayed wings and nearly hairless body, was easily recognised as an old one. On 

 further examining the captures there were found two young austriaca queens, a 

 large number of austriaca males, one rufa male, and in the balloon fly-trap five 

 rufa workers. 



The nest itself was, in general appearance, very like the smaller ritfa nests 

 found last year, the paper covering being of the same type as in norvegica and 

 sylvestris nests, but very delicate and thin. The comb consisted of two layers only, 

 of which the upper measured about 3 inches in diameter, and the lower about 2^ 

 inches. In the centre of the upper layer were 16 or 18 empty cells. Round this 

 came an area, containing between 60 and 70 cells, mostly capped, and outside this 

 again came a belt of cells, for the most part empty, but a few that were capped 

 eventually produced austriaca drones. The lower layer of comb was composed 

 entirely of large cells, with the exception of a belt round the outside of about 4 

 cells deep, which contained larvae, and in which the cells were unfinished. Inside 

 this belt of grubs came a ring of 25 capped cells, most of which contained queens, 

 while in the centre of the comb were 18 empty cells, several of whicli seemed to 

 have had wasps in them. 



Thus far the nest corresponded very closely indeed with that described by 

 Robson, and it seemed that we had confirmed the view that 7. austriaca is inquiline 

 on V. rufa. We determined, however, to keep the nest under observation, so that 

 as many as possible of the capped cells might hatch out. The five live workers 

 were therefore restored to their comrades, their wings having been first clipped, so 

 that the nest could be examined at any time without risk. 



Having supplied them with some honey, we soon had the satisfaction of seeing 

 the workers busily engaged in feeding the larvae and the young queens and drones. 

 The young queens, too, seemed to take their share of work in feeding the larvae, 

 first getting their supply of food from the workers. A young queen was never seen 

 going herself to the honey. 



During the next week or so queens and drones of the austriaca type occasion- 

 ally emerged from the capped cells, but on August 16th a drone emerged from one 

 of the large cells in the lower layer of comb, undoubtedly referable to rufa, but 

 with the face pure yellow, except for a small central black dash, and with yellow 

 spots on the scape of the antennae. In the course of the next day or two another 

 rufa male, very similar, but with three small black dashes on the face (fig. 5), 

 exactly like those that characterize the austriaca queen, appeared, and also a male, 

 which was a typical rufa. On August 18th, to our great surprise, an apparently 

 typical rufa worker emerged from the upper layer of comb. This was the last wasp 

 to come out, and as there were no further developments by August Slst, we killed 

 off all the living wasps and extracted all the remaining pupae from the capped cells. 

 These yielded a few more distinguishable austriaca queens and drones, and also 

 eleven rufa drones, but all of the latter varied in face from the typical rufa 

 colouring, and showed more or less likeness to the austriaca type. 



