256 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 



been a moderate one, neither particularly mild nor 

 severe. The summer following was very fine 

 (August especially very hot), and wasps were in great 

 abundance.* 



Queen-wasps sometimes appear abroad as early as 

 the end of March. One that had hibernated among 

 some loose papers in one of the rooms in my house, 

 in which there had been no fire during the winter, first 

 began to stir its legs and antennae on the 26th of 

 that month ; the following day it changed its place, 

 and on the 28th took wing, and was seen no more. 

 This was in 1839. It would seem as if the period of 

 their first flight was determined by something else 

 besides temperature. The mean temperature of the 

 above 28th of March was not more than 45 of Fah- 

 renheit, and several days during the week previous 

 had been quite as warm. It deserves mention, how- 

 ever, that the air was in a very electric state on that 

 day, as indicated by frequent peals of thunder (the 

 first that had been heard that year), attendant upon 

 showers. The weather generally during March 



* It does not always follow that a large number of queen-wasps 

 in the spring portends an abundant supply of workers in the au- 

 tumn. " It sometimes happens" (Kirby and Spence write) "that 

 when a large number of female wasps have been observed in the 

 spring, and an abundance of workers has in consequence been ex- 

 pected to make their attack upon us in the summer and autumn, 

 but few have appeared. Mr. Knight observed this in 1806, and 

 supposes it to be caused by a failure of males." Kirby and 

 Spence think it may be sometimes owing to wet seasons, by 

 which the nests become inundated. Vol. ii. p. 111. 



