SOME SOCIAL WASPS 



TABLE D. 

 Homing of mutilated wasps. 



277 



*One of these was a queen. 



higher and enlarging her circle, until we suppose her 

 strength fails or she comes within sight of some known 

 object. 



"Again if the bees had returned by a sense of direction, 

 they would have been back in a few minutes. To fly one 

 and a half or two miles would not take five minutes. One 

 bee out of the 147 did it in that time; but the others took 

 one, two, three or even five hours. Surely then it is rea- 

 sonable to suppose that these lost some time before they 

 came in sight of any object known to them." 



Fabre 9 has done some work on the Cerceris wasp and on 

 two species of Osmia bees insects which, while living in 

 communities, are solitary in habit. In all three species a 

 certain proportion of those experimented upon returned 

 to the nest after having been liberated at distances varying 

 from two to three miles from their homes. He cannot 

 comprehend the possibility of these creatures returning for 

 such distances when liberated in regions remote from their 



9 The Mason Bees, p. 55. 1914. 



