LTFE-HISTORY, 115 



The Wasp oolonies of the year are begun by the large females, 

 commonly known as queens, which have survived the winter, safely 

 stored away in the sheltered localities which they chose for themselves 

 when the nests to which they belonged were perishing in the previous 

 autumn. Then the females select such places for their winter rest as 

 dark nooks in sheds, or amongst wood, or rubbish, or dead leaves, or 

 even amongst stones, or in a dry bank ; indoors (if they can manage 

 to escape observation) tbey will harbour in folds of curtains, toes of 

 slippers, anywhere in fact that is snug and quiet, until they are turned 

 out in the latter instances, or in the former, the return of warmth and 

 sunshine wakes them from their winter sleep or torpor. 



Then comes the point at which (as before mentioned) tbe state of 

 the weather affects their powers of increase to a very important degree. 

 Wasps are very sensitive to cold and exposure, and where weather 

 varies, as is so commonly the case in early spring, from short bright 

 sunshine to hard frost, or sleet and snow, many of the queens who are 

 caught by the unfavourable weather perish, and the embryo nests, with 

 their few eggs, or lately hatched grubs, are also destroyed. 



This embryo nest, when the tiny structure has advanced so far as 

 to have any definite form, may be described as much resembling a 

 miniature open umbrella, made of thin grey paper-like material, from 

 half an inch to an inch in diameter of the cap, and hung by the little 

 stout peg above it to whatever support the queen Wasp may have 

 chosen. Continuing the comparison to a miniature umbrella to give 

 an idea of the entire shape, the stem above the circular cap forms the 

 suspending point, the part below (somewhat like a short club-shaped 

 handle) is enlarged at the bottom, and here a very few cells will be 

 found containing each an egg or young maggot. Above these is the 

 circular thin hood, or cap, which slightly protects the young family 

 below from weather or chills. 



This embryo nest is formed of a kind of grey paper made from 

 morsels of wood, or of bark, or material of a similar kind, worked by 

 the Wasp into a kind of paste, or papier mache, and spread into the 

 required form by her jaws, and it is obvious that where this minutely 

 delicate structure of perishable material is exposed to bad weather, it 

 is most likely to perish. 



Under ground, if it has been suspended in a hole, or under a clod, 

 where wet could reach it, the paper is likely to be ruined, and the eggs 

 destroyed ; and similarly with the bush nest-building Wasps, the little 

 nest is likely in wet and cold weather to come to nothing, independently 

 of the chances of the mother Wasp coming to trouble, and thus the 

 progeny being lost. In the exceptionally dry March of 1893, in which 

 the returns show a rainfall of approximately one-third of the average, 

 circumstances were exceptionally favourable both to the queens and to 



j3 



