9140 Entomological Society. 
and No. 6 in five days. He had only that day received the nests, with a letter from 
Mr. Stone, of which the following was an extract :—‘ Of these nests I may remark that 
the extraordinary thing is that one set of wasps should have executed the eutire series, 
and also the very short space of time in which some of the specimens were completed. 
The fifth and sixth of the series are certainly very extraordinary productions, In the 
roof of these examples the arrangement of the cones is beautifully shown.” Mr. Smith 
hoped befure the next Meeting to obtain information from Mr. Stone as to the means 
employed to compel or induce the wasps to make these abnormal constructions. 
Mr. F, Smith read the following further extract from Mr. Stone’s letter :-— 
“The present season bids fair to be a more favourable one for our favourite Order 
than any one since the disastrous year 1860. I think I never saw the commoner spe- 
cies of Bombi so plentiful. Wasps, too, are in great force, and they commenced their 
Jabours at an earlier period than I ever knew them do before. I took out of a chamber 
I bad formed the year before, and attached tu a peg I had then inserted, a small nest 
of Vespa germanica so early as the 23rd of April last, and up to the present time 
T have removed from chambers I formed this spring fifteen nests of various species and 
of various sizes, I have one of V. germanica at work in a window of the house: from 
this nest I am in daily expectation of seeing young wasps emerge. 
“Two years ago I brought home two nests of V. sylvestris, which produced a vast 
number of young females in the autumn of that year. Last year none of the females 
of this species were observed here, but this year they abound. This goes to confirm 
the opinion you have-expressed, and in which I agree, that female wasps occasionally 
remain more thav one winter in a torpid state, after leaving the nest in which they 
were bred.” : 
The Secretary read the following, which had been communicated by a gentleman 
residing near Chichester:— 
“If you have no statistics of the occasional visitations of wasps in unusual 
numbers, perhaps the following notes may interest the enquirers into such matters. 
I have been a wasp-destroyer for many years, and to that end have paid fur all queen 
wasps taken in the months of April and May, and destroy all nests found during the 
year. The queens appear when the gooseberry blooms and the hawthorn hedges begin 
to be green. In some years large numbers have been obtained, and, if my accounts 
are at all a true test, there have been very few queens in some seasons, and in others 
nol enough to repay an idle boy for the trouble of collecting them. As the breed of 
Wasps is said to be dependent in some measure on the weather in the previous autumn 
and winter, I have appended a few weather remarks in connection with the wasp 
reports. 
1836. Previous autumn wet, early spring wet, yet 123 dozens of queens were 
collected. 
1837 and 1838. Scarcely any wasps, only 3 dozens of queens in 1838, 
1839. Much wet in the previous autumn, but spring rather dry: 287 dozens of 
queens. 
1840. Much wet-in the previous autumn, the spring rather dry: 73 dozens of 
queens, 
1841. Cold and severe January, and about an average quantity of rain in 
the spring, but queen wasps abounded to a very great extent: 586 dozens of 
queens collected. No account of nests afterwards. 
et a 
