54 



ABSTRACT OP A PAPER 



HEAD ON 



JANUARY 24th, 1883, 



BY 



J. MORRIS STONE, Esq., B.A. 



{Being a continuation of a paper read before the Society, April, 26th, 1882), 



ON WASPS 



[From observations by the late Stephen Stone, Esq., F.S.A., Hon. Member 

 of the Ashmolean Society). 



In my former paper I made a few remarks of the habits and 

 social economy of Wasps, to night I propose to turn your attention 

 more especially to what may be looked upon rather as their mis- 

 fortune than their habits. 



One of the greatest misfortunes that can happen to a family 

 of wasps, and is one to which, by reason of the uncertainty of life, 

 they must now and then become subject, is the loss of their queen. 

 She is the originator of the nest, and seemingly the director of all 

 that goes on within it. The question naturally arises what be- 

 comes of the nest if, from any cause, it is deprived of her presence ? 

 In the case of the honey bee it is well known that, if such a 

 catastrophe overtake the hive, the workers proceed to feed one of 

 the newly hatched larvje with the royal food, which differs in 

 some marvellous way from that on which the larvas of the workers 

 and neuters are fed, and this has the effect of changing the status 

 of the favoured one from that of a common worker to that of a 

 fully developed queen. Kirby and Spence tell us that it takes 

 only 13 days for this wonderful transformation to take place. 

 Within a couple of days she may begin to lay eggs, so that, in 

 little more than a fortnight, the status quo is restored, and all 

 goes on well. 



This, however, is not the case with wasps. Nature has 

 provided for them a different means by which, on the loss of 

 their queen, the cells may for a time be replenished with eggs, 

 and the workers may indulge their propensity for the work of 

 feeding and tending larvje and of enlarging the nest, which the 

 increase of their numbers entails. 



The workers, that is the hitherto abortive females, become 



