SOME SOCIAL WASPS 261 



outskirts of Kimmswick. The wasps all experienced the 

 same conditions, except that those from nests 24 and 25 had, 

 in addition to the trip to Kimmswick, a trip by a tortuous 

 route up the hill to the laboratory. At 3 : 45 p. m., twenty- 

 two wasps were liberated at Montesano Park, one and eight- 

 tenths miles south of their homes, and 150 feet lower for 

 all but those from nests 24 and 25. The cages were dark- 

 ened and turned about repeatedly the more to confuse the 

 inmates. 



Three wasps from nest 25 were taken. This nest was 

 large, having ten larvae ready to spin their cocoons, six 

 with sealed cocoons, and numerous young. One would 

 suspect that by the time the proprietors had accomplished 

 this much work, they would have had sufficient foraging 

 experience to be able to get to their homes from a point 

 one and eight-tenths miles distant on the same level. Only 

 one of them returned; it appeared on the next day at 2 p. m. 

 We suspected that this one was the queen, but had no 

 proof of the fact. 4 The ages of the other two were 

 unknown. 



Nest 24 was near nest 25 in the shanty by the railroad 

 track. Five wasps were taken from this, each marked with 

 two white dots on the pro-thorax. Of these, only one re- 

 turned; it appeared the next day at 12:30 p. m.* 



Nest 15. The workers from this nest were the three 

 wasps which had taken over the queenly duties, and had 

 successfully made the one-eighth-mile trip in Experiment 

 VII. This had been about ten days previously; the addi- 

 tional time for becoming acquainted with the neighborhood 

 should have been a factor to aid them in making a prompt 



4 Since during later work these two wasps were so constantly on the 

 nests, we have fully decided that they were queens; and in later ex- 

 periments refer lo them as queens. 



