288 WASP STUDIES AFIELD 



Nests with i queen, i nest 



Nests with 2 queens, i nest 



Nests with 4 queens, 2 nests 



There were also some queens in clusters, without any evi- 

 dence whatever of nests being built. 



That old nests are sometimes used, but usually not the 

 old cells, is evidenced by the fact that flourishing Polistes 

 nests are often found with bright, clean cells along the 

 periphery and a center of soiled, partly disintegrated cells. 

 However, one should not attach to this fact too much 

 assumption of intelligent choice, for we often find nests in 

 strange situations which are probably accidental, as, for 

 instance, the mud nests of Chalybion and Pclopocus often 

 found plastered upon Polistes nests, or, like one curiosity 

 which we saw, a pipe-organ nest and two mud nests all 

 subjoining a large paper nest. Whether the queen falls 

 upon old nests as accidentally as she does upon the rafters 

 of a barn or other site, is a problem worth study; but, 

 whether through luck or foresight, we must admit that the 

 queen enlarging an old nest, with the stem and foundation 

 already built and the material at hand which may be again 

 used, has much of her work already done at a time of year 

 when she is without assistants. 



We usually think of Polistes as inhabitants of sheds, and 

 in such places they are most abundant, but their nests are 

 built in trees as well, where there is no shelter whatever 

 from wind and rain. Judging by the large size of these 

 nests, which of course denotes strong colonies, we see that 

 they are little affected by the elements. 



They seem, moreover, to be able to adapt their nesting 

 habits to unusual conditions. We once found a nest in a 

 rusty tomato can in a city rubbish heap. Polistes variatus 13 



13 Hungerford and Williams, Ent. News 23= 255. 1912. 



