348 Wasps : Their Life-History and Habits. [Sess. 



lays eggs which hatch out a brood of perfect females : last of 

 all, as the cold weather sets in, the queen lays some other eggs, 

 from which a small brood of males is finally developed." 

 That, of course, is a mistake, as the drones are always hatch- 

 ing before the queens are started — first, because it takes 

 twenty-four days to hatch males, and only eighteen to hatch 

 out a queen; second, it is very necessary that. the males should 

 be matured before the queens are about, as they must be 

 mated before they are six days old : between two and five 

 days is the usual time. This writer further endeavours to 

 make out that it is only when the queen is old and enfeebled 

 that she deposits male eggs. Now there cannot be the slightest 

 doubt that the reason why male eggs are deposited earlier than 

 queen eggs is that the males may be matured and ready to 

 mate with the queens when the latter hatch. The same 

 writer says : " Drones or males are of little account." I 

 wonder what would be the use of the queens without them ! 

 I believe that, if it were necessary, the queen could lay male 

 eggs the first week of her depositing; and as to being old 

 or enfeebled the first year, I have an idea that she may, like 

 the queen bee, live for two or three years if no accident 

 befalls her. A queen bee will live for five years : I have had 

 one over that age in my possession, and I have had them 

 depositing male eggs the first month of their lives. It is a 

 fact that they can deposit either kind of eggs at will. Male 

 eggs are really unfertilised eggs. If a queen bee has not been 

 mated, all the eggs she deposits will hatch out males ; and I 

 believe that wasps are very similar to bees in that respect. 



I have made wasps build their nests in almost every con- 

 ceivable place and position. I once allowed one to build its 

 nest to a great size in an empty beehive. It was eleven 

 inches from side to side and ten inches from top to bottom. 

 Wasps' nests are usually deeper than their breadth ; and 

 although inside a hive, and sheltered from the weather, this 

 nest had the thickest walls I ever saw : they were at many 

 places an inch and a half in thickness, and with from five to 

 nine plies or sheets of paper. When the males began to 

 appear, I sent them to sleep with cyanide of potassium, and 

 then dissected the nest. I put most of the combs containing 

 brood into boxes with glass lids, and hatched them out on the 

 top of a beehive. It was then that I saw colour had nothing 



