178 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
tubes, which are called, collectively, the ovaries of 
either side, and are filled with eggs in different stages 
of development. The eggs which lie nearest the 
uterine end of the tubes are much more advanced than 
those farther in. As we follow the tubes inwards the 
eggs are found to be smaller, harder, and of a whiter 
colour. Hunter* counted fifty eggs, though with 
some difficulty, in one of the twelve egg-tubes of a 
hornet. I have never counted more than seventy 
eggs, rudimentary or well-developed, in the entire 
ovaries of a wasp; rarely more than half that num- 
ber. While the ovaries of the female honey-bee 
contain more than ten times as many.t My ob- 
servations were mostly made on wasps taken in the 
early summer, and of course this number did not 
represent all the wasps which were to be developed 
in the course of the season, but only so many eggs 
or germs as were sufficiently advanced at that time 
to be visible. Still, making all allowances, the 
fertility of wasps is really much inferior to that of 
the honey-bee. Not only are the eggs fewer, but 
the egg-tubes are much fewer. And the difference is 
apparent at whatever period the examination of the 
ovaries be made, whether they have been taken from 
the queen-mother of a thriving swarm in July, or 
from the strong-minded female who has to be servant- 
of-all-work to the infant swarm in May or June. 
The organs, which have been just traced in the 
perfect female, may be found in a more or less imper- 
fect form in nearly all the workers, which are, in fact, 
* Posthumous Works,’ by Owen. Vol. I, p. 80. 
+ See Swammerdam. ‘Bybel des Natuure.’ Tab. XJX, Fig. 3. 
Folio Ed.; also Rymer Jones. ‘Animal Kingdom,’ Fig. 127, p. 283. 
