1897-98-] Wasps: Their Life- History and Habits. 347 



proved a different variety, one cannot very well judge from 

 these in a dead wasp, as then they shrink very much, and are 

 always darker. I have noticed also that the earlier workers 

 are much smaller than those hatched later in the season. These 

 unfinished nests are far more common than the finished ones, 

 because many queens begin nests, but few live to finish them. 

 If a nest the size of those shown, or larger, contained worker, 

 male, and queen cells, then it might justly be called the nest 

 of the hermit wasp — certainly it could not be the common 

 wasp's nest ; but without these different cells, no hermit or any 

 other wasp could perpetuate its species. The nests shown at 

 the December meeting contained only worker cells. 



Now we shall have a look at our wasp's nest : we left it 

 about the size of an egg, and by this time it will be some 

 four weeks since the first eggs were deposited. There will 

 now be between twenty and thirty lively workers building as 

 fast as they are able, increasing the breadth of comb, and by- 

 and-by starting another tier about three-eighths of an inch 

 below the first, and hung from it by small columns of the 

 same material as the first column was made of. The cells in 

 this tier will be all the same size as the first. I never found 

 fewer than two — sometimes, but not often, three — tiers of 

 worker cells. On the edges of the third comb there will 

 frequently be large cells, the centre being filled with worker 

 cells : the fourth, fifth, and sixth, if there should be so many, 

 will be all male and queen cells. I have occasionally seen 

 seven tiers of comb in a nest; but five is the usual number, 

 when two will be worker and three male and queen cells. I 

 think it is very apparent why there are no queen or male cells 

 early in the season. If the cells were there, they must be 

 used ; and if queens were too early hatched, they would be too 

 far advanced before going into winter quarters, and likewise 

 run more risk of being killed by having to fly about so long. 



There must be a great many queens hatched from each 

 nest : roughly speaking, there must be 2000 large cells in 

 each nest containing a male or queen. Allowing three males 

 to every queen, that gives us about 500 queens from one nest. 

 These begin to hatch about the end of August, and by the end 

 of September the queens will all, or nearly all, have got into 

 their winter quarters. In the ' Strand Magazine ' article 

 already referred to, the writer says, " In the autumn the queen 



