236 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
a longer time. Miller * found that his hornets were 
five days in the egg, nine days in the larval, and 
thirteen days in the pupal state; altogether twenty- 
seven or twenty-eight days, of which half were 
passed in the pupal state. In two days more they 
left the nest, mixed with the other workers. Pro- 
fessor Owenf says, that “in the common wasp the 
larva is hatched eight days after oviposition; it grows 
to its full size in twelve to fourteen days, then 
spins its delicate hood, casts its integument, ...... 
and after a passive pupa state of ten days emerges 
a perfect insect.” From my own observations, I have 
made no nearer approach to accuracy in this matter 
than the general fact, that the eggs of wasps take 
somewhat more than three weeks to develop into 
perfect msects. Nor can I say at all how long 
a period each stage of the development occupies, 
nearer than that, within a fortnight, a nest may be 
made de novo, cells built, and occupied by male 
pupe. 
The accurate solution of this question is more 
difficult than may appear at first sight. Speaking 
generally, winged insects, creatures of the sun, are 
more observant of seasons than of the duration of 
time. To them, as to the rest of Creation,t the suc- 
* Op. cit., p. 63. 
+ Owen, ‘Invertebrate Animals,’ p. 240. 
t+ We measure time by the succession of events, and such a measure 
must vary with the number of events, and the intensity of our obser- 
vation. And when we speak of a given interval of time, we do not 
in fact speak of something which is necessarily the same in amount 
and value for all, but of something which varies in value according to 
the nature and activity of each.—Thompson’s Sermons preached in 
Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, Sermon I, p. 5, ‘The Christian’s View of Time.’ 
