1912] Turner — An Orphan Colony of Polistes Pall i pes Lepel 185 



All of the four wasps that were on the nest emerged after I had 

 left the insectary in the afternoons. On the inorning of the six- 

 teenth I arrived at the insectary at a quarter past seven. One 

 immature wasp had partly emerged from its cell and seemed to 

 be resting. Its head, its first pair of legs and its prothorax were 

 protruding from the cell.- After I had fed the wasps in the manner 

 mentioned in the above paragraph, the remainder of the time was 

 devoted to watching the emerging wasp. By slowly wriggling, 

 it succeeded in freeing the second pair of legs, the mesothorax, 

 the wing pads, and a portion of the metathorax. These wing 

 pads were slender and sub-conical and did not reach quite to the 

 beginning of the abdomen. By the time this much had been 

 accomplished it was twenty-seven minutes after seven. From 

 this time on, the behavior of the emerging insect consisted of va- 

 rious combinations of the following movements: squirming from 

 side to side through angles varying from forty -five to ninety de- 

 grees, flexing the body forward and straightening it upwards, and 

 bending the body to the right or to the left. Usually the antennae 

 were waving. Most of the time the forelegs were folded across 

 the prosternum, occasionally they were flexed or straightened; 

 but they took no part in either shoving or pulling. The second 

 pair of legs were frequently pulling or pushing in an effort to 

 help free the body. From twenty -five minutes after seven in the 

 morning to half past three in the afternoon — nine tedious hours 

 —this emerging wasp was watched continuously. At the last 

 mentioned hour fatigue and other duties made it necessary for 

 me to leave for the day. At seven o'clock the next morning this 

 wasp was dead; but another wasp had emerged from a neigh- 

 boring cell. While the wasp that died in an effort to emerge was 

 making strenuous efforts to escape from its cell, the wasps of the 

 nest frequently approached it; but none attempted to assist it. 



On the eighteenth it was one o'clock in the afternoon when I 

 visited the insectary. In the meanwhile two more wasps had 

 emerged from thp ir cells and two of the largest larvae had woven 

 their cocoons, thus capping their cells. These larvae fasted from 

 the seventh of August to the fifteenth, and from that time to the 

 eighteenth the only food they received was honey; yet the caps 

 they wove for their cells were as perfect as those on the other cells. 

 Being acquainted with Margaret Morley's experience with orphan 



