SOCIAL ECONOMY. 249 
species in both sexes. Small feeble swarms produce 
few or no perfect females; but in large strong swarms 
they are found by the score, larger or smaller, more 
or less perfectly developed, more or less laden with 
fat. And, if the same rule holds for wasps as for 
bees, the more perfect the insect is the greater 1s the 
rapidity with which it is developed. Lastly, from 
whatever cause, whether from a voluntary act of the 
queen wasp, as of the queen bee, or as a simple con- 
sequence of having laid so many eggs, the last eggs 
are deposited without being fertilized, and drones are 
developed from them. 
By such very simple means the perfect and imperfect 
females are fitted for the lives they have to lead 
respectively. A perfectly organized female without 
a supply of fat could hardly survive her winter sleep 
and her spring toils. A fat worker might survive the 
winter, but would be unable to continue the species, 
in both sexes, in the ensuing summer. ‘The fat serves 
its present purpose, and, as it is used up, its place is 
more than occupied by the enlarged ovaries of the 
queen-mother who—unless the hornet be an exception 
to this rule—is henceforth almost compelled, by her 
unwieldy size, to remain a prisoner within her own 
nest. 
And now to venture into the domestic privacy of 
wasps. If we wish to study the habits of wasps, to 
become more closely acquaimted with them than the 
mere external examination and the occasional capture 
of a nest will allow, we must secure.a.swarm with 
its nest in active work, remove it to some place more 
convenient for observation than wasps usually select, 
