260 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



Experiment VIII 



July 9. This test, in all essentials the same as Experiment 

 VII, was performed with five workers from two orphan 

 nests : three workers from nest 18, which emerged June 29 to 

 July i, and two from nest n which also emerged June 29 

 and July i . These were taken to the mail-box and released 

 at 10 : 25. 



Two of the workers from nest 18 returned at n : 10 and 

 ii : 50, and two from nest n, one at n : 55 a. m. and the 

 other at i : 35 p. m. Here we see workers returning with 

 eminent success. We shall note two things in passing: 

 they were all eight to eleven days old, and they were solely 

 responsible for the maintenance of the home, and hence 

 had probably had wider experience in the world than indo- 

 lent youngsters. The reader will remember that young 

 workers readily lose themselves even though liberated near 

 the nest. 



Up to the present point in our studies, old workers have 

 successfully made the trip over one-eighth mile distance, 

 and queens have returned from a two-mile trip, but the old 

 workers have not yet been experimentally tested in long 

 flights. Hence the following experiment was carried on 

 with the purpose of trying workers both old and young in 

 a flight of longer distance. 



Experiment IX 



July 1 7. The wasps were taken from the buildings about 

 the farm, and two lots, nest 24 and 25, were brought from 

 a shed near the railroad track and carried up a hill of per- 

 haps 150 feet elevation, to the laboratory to be marked. 

 This was done at noon. Later they were taken down the 

 gently sloping hillside by an entirely different route to the 

 railroad track, and then carried to Montesano Park on the 



