Prof. R. L. Edgeworth on Irish Vespide. 467 
trances observed in an hour ; or, conversely, the sum of exits and 
entrances is three times the number of wasps. Accordingly, in 
a nest of 30,000, the number of exits and entrances would he 
90,000 per hour, or 1500 per minute; and such a nest, I be- 
lieve, has not yet been observed. I should also add that I have 
seldom seen a nest which contained 2000 wasps. Mr. Smith 
has seen one with 2590; but it is very possible that climate 
may affect the size of wasps’ nests very considerably. The nests 
of wasps vary in size very much, according to the favourableness 
of the weather. In dry seasons they are generally larger. The 
mildness of April and May, not so much as the number of 
queens seen in the spring, or the quantity of nests the preceding 
year, seems to affect the number of nests for the present year. 
Wasps are very delicate animals, and peculiarly subject to the 
influence of the weather; but the severity and wet of winter 
itself do not appear to affect their number the following summer. 
It is impossible, at least from such circumstances, to predict the 
number or the paucity of wasps. Such, at least, is my expe- 
rience, confirmed by carefully comparing the various notices in 
the ‘ Zoologist,’ which form valuable statistics on this point. 
The Vespa Germanica seems to be almost a variety of the V. 
vulgaris ; at any rate, the habits of the two are so similar that 
one description will answer for both. The Vespa vulgaris is the 
common wasp of Ireland; but in the county Down Mr. Haliday 
assures me that V. rufa is more common. I give no description 
of this or any other wasp, as Mr. Smith has already completely 
exhausted the subject ; but it is worth while remarking that the 
colour and size of this insect seem to depend very much upon 
the locality in which its nest is situated. I have observed that 
nests which face the sun generally produce small, bright yellow, 
very active wasps, whereas the wasps from nests in dark and 
shady places appear larger, darker, and lazier. The same phe- 
nomenon is to be seen among ants—some being lighter and 
some darker than others, without any other very apparent cause 
than that suggested by the situation of their nest. It has also 
been remarked that each individual wasp as it grows older alters 
considerably in size and colour. 
Locality selected for Building—The situation in which each 
wasp builds is generally very characteristic of the species, and 
therefore it is a matter of some importance to endeavour to as- 
certain the usual locality selected by each different wasp. The 
nests of V. vulgaris are generally formed in dry banks, in the 
roots of decayed trees, and occasionally in the thatch of cottages 
or other similar places, but may occur almost anywhere. Mr. 
Smith says he has seen one in a pump. In the ‘ Transactions 
of the Ashmolean Society’ (xx. 3), a nest was found in a loaf of 
