14 B. C. Entomological Society 



If my audience will follow me, I think it will ajiree with me in spite 

 of this authority's words that the material, apart from "resembling," is, 

 in fact, coarse brown paper-grey, to be correct. To proceed ; the wasp, 

 after gathering together the little pellet of pulp, flew to a nearby shrub, 

 where, on the underside of one of the smooth, wide leaves, carefully 

 spread with feet and mandibles her little bit of paper material, then back 

 to the rail to collect more pulp. Not alwa.vs returning to the same bush 

 for the spreading operation, until at length, I presume other household 

 cares claimed her attention, as she flew away and came no more. 



Afterwards, (shall I say the next day? I fancy that will be nearly 

 right), I again took my post near the paper bush. I had not been there 

 long when Mrs. Vespa came buzzing about, and though I then, and always 

 have had, a deathly fear of wasps, I stood my ground, soon perceiving 

 that paper making was to the lady of far greater importance than sting- 

 ing a boy dressed in dirty face and ragged pants. Soon she alighted on 

 the bush, on one of the very leaves under which she had plastered a bit 

 of pulp. Carefully taking a corner of the now dry paper in her man- 

 dibles, she gently pvilled the sheet clear of the leaf, and taking wing, 

 flew away with a dirty grey banner trailing beneath her bf)dy, a sheet 

 measuring perhaps three-quarter-inch of irregular shape. 



That closed the book for the time being, for being "Vespa occidenta- 

 lis" (or shall we say, "Vespa vulgaris, var. occidentalis?") her nest was 

 underground, and the last I saw of her was a busy wasp dragging a folded 

 bit of paper into a hole in the ground. Having become interested in this 

 paper-making operation, I later watched nest building operations when- 

 ever possible, and was finally lucky enough to see the operation of build- 

 ing up. This time it was another of the paper-makers, the Black Hornet, 

 who showed me the way, whose nest, being built above ground, gave a 

 good view of the work. Alighting on the nest with a piece of paper of 

 much the size and appearance of that made by "Vulgaris," the insect 

 proceeded to a part evidently being built on or strt-ngthened. She 

 attached one corner of the sheet to the nest, and gradually spread it 

 smooth, at the same time wetting the edges with (presumably) mucous 

 saliva, tamping the whole quite smooth, the whole operation taking per- 

 haps 30 seconds. This, in brief, is the story of Vespa 's paper-making and 

 building up. It is of course well known that the queen lies dormant in 

 some snug place during winter. In early spring, she bestirs herself with 

 the first warm rays. A small nest is made without delay, this of less than 

 one inch in diameter, in some sheltered place above ground. I am again 

 speaking of Vulgaris — in which she lays 3 or 4 eggs — seldom more at 

 first, each in its tiny cell (paper cells too), and from this on the life 

 history is easily traced. The first brood help build a bigger nest, also 

 above ground, and this brood in turn help the colony, which, at a certain 

 stage in life's affairs, digs its underground chamber in which is built the 

 final nest from which the members emerge in search of prey, belted war- 



