OO HYMENOPTERA. 



her conspicuously larger size, must, one would think, have 

 instantly been observed. Dr. Ormerod did observe several 

 wasps rather larger than the rest, but no single wasp so 

 much so as to be considered the queen par excellence ; these 

 he considers to be small queens of a former year, and joint 

 founders of the nest 5 this is at variance with all my obser- 

 vations on the other species of the genus Vespa. 



The original nest it appears was tenanted by an individual 

 evident!// larger than the rest, and was the only queen con- 

 tained in the first nest, and she died on the journey from 

 Gloucestershire to Brighton. 



The fact of the second and third nests being found to 

 contain fertile eggs and grubs, which developed additional 

 workers, is the most remarkable circumstance connected 

 with Dr. Orrnerod's observations, and certainly requires 

 much further investigation ; that the eggs deposited by 

 workers should produce males we are quite prepared to be- 

 lieve; the observations of Dzierzon, which were subse- 

 quently fully corroborated by Dr. Siebold, in the case of 

 the hive-bee, have placed the fact of worker bees depositing 

 eggs which produce males only, beyond doubt ; but that 

 worker wasps lay eggs which develope 'workers and also 

 males, as we have previously observed, requires confir- 

 mation. Huber, on the authority of M. Perrot, says, the 

 small queens (workers) lay only male eggs. In fact, if the 

 internal organization of the worker wasp is the same as that 

 of the worker hive-bee, such cannot possibly be the case, as 

 is clearly shown by Siebold, in his remarkable work on " A 

 true Parthenogenesis." 



Again, were we to admit at once as a fact, that worker 

 wasps deposit eggs which produce workers, are we not ad- 

 mitting the position, that females are not absolutely necessary 



