276 



WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



previous experience is not necessary to successful flights. 

 There we see that 27 successful returns out of 96 

 were made by wasps used for the first time, and that 

 only i out of 1 6 wasps that had had previous flights made 

 a successful second trip. With the queens, this is not 

 the case. 



Table C shows that not one of the 17 males returned to 

 their former nests, even though the distance for 16 of them 

 was only one-eighth mile. 



Table D shows that the function of the antennae is not 

 the sole factor in bringing them home, for out of 24 muti- 

 lated wasps, 1 8 successfully returned. 



Thus, by the elimination of other faculties, the evidence 

 grows stronger that vision is the sense whereby the insects 

 regain their homes. 



TABLE C. 

 Homing of males. 



The evidence here shows that Polistcs pallipes find their 

 way home in the manner which Lubbock 8 describes for his 

 bees : "If a hive bee is taken to a distance she behaves as 

 a pigeon does under similar circumstances; that is to say, 

 she flies round and round, gradually rising higher and 



8 Senses, Instincts and Intelligence of Animals, p. 265. 1888. 



