184 Psyche [December 



AN ORPHAN COLONY OF POLISTES PALLIPES LEVEL. 



By C. H. Tukner, 



Sumner High School, St. Louis, Mo. 



It was the seventh of August, 1912. Beneath the eaves of a 

 small, well painted railroad shed in the suburbs of St. Louis, a 

 small nest of Polistes pallipes Lepel. was hanging. There were 

 nine capped cells containing pupae and fifteen open cells contain- 

 ing larvae in all stages of development, from recently laid eggs 

 to forms almost ready to enter the pupal stage; but the only 

 adult inliabitant was the female wasp (the "widow-mother" or 

 "queen") that founded the colony. This paper nest was trans- 

 ported several miles to my in-door insectary and suspended from 

 a shelf. The "widow-mother" was left behind. 



On the morning of the fifteenth of August four wasps were 

 resting on the nest; evidently they had emerged over night. As 

 I approached, they elevated the front portions of their bodies and 

 waved their antennae. I offered them some honey on the end of a 

 short glass rod. They ate it immediately, even reaching out to 

 secure it. I then offered them some honey on a steel spatula and 

 they ate that. Placing some honey on the tip of my index finger, 

 I presented it to them. After a moment's hesitation they cau- 

 tiously sipped the honey. Normally the "widow-mother" of the 

 colony would have fed these newly emerged wasps with food held 

 between her jaws. Apparently these wasps possess an instinctive 

 tendency to sip food from any small object that happens to be 

 near. 



The next morning, August sixteenth, when I approached the 

 nest with a spatula of honey, the wasps hung down by their hind 

 legs to sip it. One, in her eagerness, stretched so far out that she 

 lost her balance and fell to the shelf below. Most of these wasps 

 seemed to be eating for the gratification of self; one, however, 

 acted differently. After sipping the honey she walked about the 

 nest, entering cell after cell. She was feeding the larvae on honey. 

 The heads of the larger larvae reached so near to the rims of the 

 cells that I could see the nurse as she placed the drop of liquid 

 to their mouths. 



