OBSERVATIONS ON HYMENOPTEROUS PAPERS, ETC. 89 



to the perpetuation of the species? nothing but the capacity 

 on the part of the workers to hybernate, appears to be 

 wanting, and the race might be continued without queens 

 at all. 



The correctness of the generally received opinion, that 

 the nest is always commenced by a single individual wasp, 

 and that a female, is doubted by Dr. Ormerod ; this doubt is 

 based upon the fact of the original nest having been twice 

 replaced, and of eggs being laid which produced living 

 grubs, at a season too early for new queens to be developed 

 or impregnated. This circumstance, in connection with the 

 fact of failing to find any workers with developed ovaries, 

 apparently supports the opinion ; no queen was ever seen 

 in either of the nests constructed after the removal of the 

 original nest, nor was any queen ever observed in the 

 parent nest, except the one which died on the journey to 

 Brighton, and still the business of the nest went on as usual, 

 only failing to produce, in the autumn, queens as well as 

 workers an:! males. 



The subject, I am aware, is one requiring much further 

 observation and research ; but Entomologists are greatly in- 

 debted to Dr. Ormerod for having published the results of 

 his observations, which are full of interest, and will, I trust, 

 awaken a desire in others to unite with him in the further 

 prosecution of this highly interesting subject. 



To the opinion, that the nature of the materials, which a 

 species makes use of, being so undeviatingly the same as to 

 become characteristic of it, and that V. Britannica, V. sylves- 

 tris, and V. Germanica, always use herbaceous filaments, 

 we cannot subscribe, having frequently seen all these species 

 collecting materials from sound timber ; the first species was 

 seen in great numbers, scraping or rasping off its materials 



