INTERRELATIONS OF INSECTS 329 
and females appear and pairing occurs. Though the statement 
has often been made that only the young queens survive the 
winter, there 1s some reason to believe that not only the queens 
but also males and workers may hibernate successfully in the 
ESL. 
The larve are fed at first, by regurgitation, upon the sugary 
nectar of flowers and the juices of fruits, and later upon more 
Fic. 281. 
Nest of wasp, Vespa maculata. A, outer aspect; B, with envelope cut away to show 
combs. Greatly reduced. 
substantial food, such as the softer parts of caterpillars, flies, 
bees, etc., reduced to a pulp by mastication; occasionally wasps 
steal honey from bees. 
The workers, as is usual among social Hymenoptera, are 
modified females, incapable of reproduction as a rule, though 
the distinction between worker and queen is not nearly so sharp 
among wasps as it is among bees. Worker eggs are said to 
be parthenogenetic and to produce only males. The males, 
unlike those of the honey bee, are active laborers in the colony. 
In the tropics there are wasps that form permanent colonies, 
store honey and swarm, after the fashion of honey bees. 
Polistes.—The preceding description of lMespa applies 
equally well to our several species of Polistes, except that the 
