27 
Jabours at an earlier period than I ever knew them do before. I took out of a chamber 
I had formed the year before, and attached tu a peg I had then inserted, a small nest 
of Vespa germanica so early as the 23rd of April last, and up to the present time 
I have removed from chambers I formed this spring fifteen nests of various species and 
of various sizes. I have one of V. germanica at work in a window of the house: from 
this nest I am in daily expectation of seeing young wasps emerge. 
“Two years ago I brought homé two nests of V. sylvestris, which produced a vast 
number of young females in the autumn of that year. Last year none of the females 
of this species were observed here, but this year they abound. This goes to confirm 
the opinion you have expressed, and in which I agree, that female wasps occasionally 
remain more than one winter in a torpid state, after leaving the nest in which they 
were bred.” 
The Secretary read the following, which had been communicated by a gentleman 
residing near Chichester :— 
“If you have no statistics of the occasional visitations of wasps in unusual 
numbers, perhaps the following notes may interest the enquirers into such matters. 
I have been a wasp-destroyer for many years, and to that end have paid for all queen 
wasps taken in the months of April and May, and destroy all nests found during the 
year. The queens appear when the gooseberry blooms and the hawthorn hedges begin 
to be green. In some years large numbers have been obtained, and, if my accounts 
sare at all a true test, there have been very few queens in some seasons, and in others 
not enough to repay an idle boy for the trouble of collecting them. As the breed of 
wasps is said to be dependent in some measure on the weather in the previous autumn 
and winter, I have appended a few weather remarks in connection with the wasp 
reports. 
1836. Previous autumn wet, early spring wet, yet 123 dozens of queens were 
collected. 
1837 and 1838. Scarcely any wasps, only 3 dozens of queens in 1838. 
1839. Much wet in the previous autumn, but spring rather dry: 287 dozens of 
queens. 
1840. Much wet in the previous autumn, the spring rather dry: 73 dozens of 
queens. 
1841. Cold and severe January, and about an average quantity of rain in 
the spring, but queen wasps abounded to a very great extent: 586 dozens of 
queens collected. No account of nests afterwards. 
“ No report of wasps taken for some years, but it is supposed that they were scarce 
here, or the boys would have been anxious to earn their pence. 
1852 and 1853. Very wet, consequently against the breed of such insects. No 
queens paid for. 
1854. The four months, July to October, in 1853, very wet, but the spring of 
1854 dry. No queens recorded as paid for, but the nests of wasps were very 
early, very strong and remarkably abundant: nearly 100 nests were destroyed 
within a few hundred yards of the homestead. The year 1854 was one of the 
driest on record, and it was also remarkable for the almost total destruction of 
hops by blight. Were the wasps sent to destroy or stay that evil? They are 
great enemies to all insect life. In this year I was attracted by the wasps 
