1903.] 297 



situated on a plateau of about 5000 ft. elevation, there is probably no 

 very great difference between June there and November and Decem- 

 ber here. So I think it is too soon to fix the species as originating in 

 Australia. According to present evidence both Australia and Africa 

 may have received it from England. 



I may remark that, according to the too brief description, Psocus 

 piger, Hag., from Ceylon, is probably an Ectopsocus, but it can 

 scarcely be specifically identical with ours. 



Lewisham, London : 



November 3rd, 1903. 



VESPA RUFA + AUSTRIACA. 

 BY D. SHARP, M.A., M.B., F.R.S., &c. 



Like many others I have been much interested in the paper 

 by Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Pack-Beresford on Vespa austriaca and 

 V. rufa. Mr. E. Saunders' comments on the subject in the November 

 No. of this Magazine seem to me to point out clearly the way to an 

 explanation of the relations of the two wasps. And if we add to the 

 considerations he has adduced the additional one that V. austriaca is 

 a Vespa that produces no workers, I think we need have but little 

 difficulty in understanding the case. 



We know that all the Social Insects have the remarkable peculi- 

 arity of producing two forms of the females— a worker form and a 

 reproductive form — and in this fact lies the essential distinction be- 

 tween the social life and the solitary life. When there are but few 

 workers produced the social life difi'ers but little from the life of the 

 solitary Hyvienoptera . As an instance we may mention the ant Ponera. 



There can be little doubt that the perfection of the social life has 

 been very gradually and slowly brought about ; and if so, there was 

 a time when Vespa rufa and V. austriaca were pretty nearly, if not 

 absolutely, one and the same, for Vespa rufa did not then produce 

 the two forms of the female. If we suppose that during the period 

 subsequent to this the common stock produced offspring some of which 

 had the power of producing (to a slight extent) the differentiated 

 females, then these would be Vespa rufa ethologically ; while the 

 descendants that had not this power would be Vespa austriaca 

 ethologically. 



This supposition does not deal with the morphological distinctions 

 between the two forms. And the question as to the aetiology of these 

 morphological distinctions brings us into contact with some of the 

 most interesting biological problems. What is the relation between 



