228 Mr. G. Newport on the Predaceous 



XLV. On the Predaceous Habits of the Co7mnon WasjJ, 

 Vespa vulgaris, Linn. By G. Newport, Esq. 



[Read 7tli December, 1S35.] 



Every naturalist is acquainted with tlie predaceous habits of the 

 common wasp, and the devastation it commits among Dipterous, 

 Hymenopterous, and Lepidopterous insects, but I am not aware that 

 any particular account has been given of the manner in which it 

 commits these devastations. Dr. Darwin has somewhere made a 

 statement respecting the wasp, which he seems to think affords a 

 strong proof of a faculty of reasoning in insects ; but I think it will 

 appear that the fact he observed, and upon which he founded his 

 opinion, was only one of those occurrences which form part of the 

 instinctive predaceous habits of the species. Dr. Darwin's account, 

 as nearly as I can remember, is, " that happening one day to see a 

 wasp kUl a fly, he watched its motions, and saw it cut off the head 

 and abdomen, and then attempt to fly away with the remainder; 

 but the wind being strong, the flight of the wasp with its prey was 

 impeded; and that the wasp then alighted again on the ground, and 

 cut oflr the wing, and then flew away with the remaining portion." 

 This statement, upon a prima facie view, certainly looks very like a 

 process of reasoning on the part of the wasp, but it appears to be 

 only its usual habit upon every similar occasion. In September, 

 1834, I had an opportunity of observing the predaceous habits of the 

 wasp in a large garden in which there was a very numerous colony. 

 I was capturing insects upon a small plot of ground overgrown with 

 thistles, which were then in flower. The common white butterflies 

 Pontia napi and P. rapce were exceedingly abundant, and the wasps, 

 and many Dipterous insects, were flying about very actively, when 

 I observed, on a sudden, a specimen of P. rupee, towards which I was 

 then looking, precipitated to the ground from the thistle-blossom 

 upon which it had been very quietly seated ; and upon going up to 

 it immediately, I found a wasp very busily employed in cutting off 

 its wings and head, and afterwards its legs. When it had done this 

 it took up the dismembered body, and poising it between its own 

 legs, flew away with it to a neighbouring tree, where, upon follow- 

 ing it, I found it mangling the body of its prey, as if to destroy the 

 little remaining vitality. While doing this the wasp had suspended 

 himself upon a leaf by the claw of one leg, which supported its whole 

 weight, while its other limbs were employed in holding and turning 

 the mangled body of the butterfly. When it had done this suffi- 



