OBSERVATIONS, ETC. 39 



this highly interesting subject has fallen into the hands of a 

 most able and careful observer, Mr. S. Stone; this gentleman 

 published the result of his observations in the November part 

 of the Zoologist, which must have been read with great in- 

 terest by every Entomologist. In Mr. Stone's paper the de- 

 position of fertile eggs by worker wasps is verified and placed 

 beyond a doubt. Here then is an Entomological enigma, 

 apparently requiring the patient investigation of a Siebold or 

 Leuckart to unravel it ; Siebold has shown, that without im- 

 pregnation, the eggs of the hive-bee can only produce male 

 brood; but, in the case of the wasp, Mr. Stone has clearly 

 proved that worker wasps, which could not possibly have 

 been impregnated, deposit eggs thnt produce females, that is,' 

 worker wasps ; we can offer no explanation of such a remark- 

 able phenomenon, conjecture is at a loss even to propose one. 



If further investigation should show that in every vespiary 

 a certain number of v>asps always deposit eggs^ then may we 

 not regard it as a beautiful provision in nature, for increasing 

 the number of labourers, precisely at a time when additional 

 hands appear to be required to meet the increasing necessities 

 of the community. 



All difficulty would be cleared away if we knew that 

 worker wasps were frequently impregnated, and that they 

 also hybernated during the winter; but after a close observa- 

 tion of these insects, extending over twenty years, not a 

 solitary instance of such an occurrence has either been 

 observed, or come to our knowledge ; whereas, in the case of 

 female wasps, such observations have been numberless. I 

 have repeatedly taken spring nests of wasps, in which not a 

 single individual had been reared to maturity, and have in- 

 variably found the queen, or foundress-wasp, the sole tenant 

 of the nest ; we trust during the coming season, should it 



