SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 511 



wtere the greeu had previously been. She returned to the blue . 

 I then replaced the greeu paper for an hour, after which I moved 

 it 18 inches as before, and put brick-red paper in its place. She 

 returned to the brick-red paper. But although this experimeut 

 indicates that this wasp was less strongly affected by colours than 

 the bees which I had previously observed, still I satisfied myself 

 that she was not colour-blind. 



I moved the greeu paper slightly and put the honey, which, aa 

 before, was on a slip of plain glass, about 4 feet off. She came back 

 and lit on the green paper, but finding no honey, rose again, and 

 hawked about in search of it. After 90 seconds I put the green 

 paper under the honey, and in 15 seconds she found it. I then, 

 while she was absent at the nest, moved both the honey and the 

 paper about a foot from their previous positions, and placed them 

 about a foot apart. She returned as usual, hovered over tlie 

 paper, lit on it, rose again, flew about for a few seconds, lit again 

 on the paper, and again rose. After 2 minutes had elapsed, I 

 slipped the paper under the honey, when she almost immediately 

 (within 5 seconds) lit on it. It seems obvious, therefore, that 

 she could see green. * 



I then tried her with red. I placed the honey on brick-red 

 paper, and left her for an hour, from 5 p.m. to 6, to get accustomed 

 to it. During this time she continued her usual visits. I then 

 put the honey and the coloured paper about a foot apart ; she re- 

 turned first to the paper and then to the honey. 1 then trans- 

 posed the honey and the paper. This seemed to puzzle her. She 

 returned to the paper, but did not settle. After she had hawked 

 about for 100 seconds I put the honey on the red paper, when she 

 settled on it at once. I then put the paper and the honey again 

 18 inches apart. As before, she returned fii'st to the paper, but 

 almost immediately went to the honey. In a similar manner I 

 satisfied myself that she could see yellow. 



Again, on August 18th I experimented on two wasps, one of 

 which had been coming more or less regularly to honey on yellow 

 paper for four days, the other for twelve — coming, that is to say, for 

 several days, the whole day long, and on all the others, with two 

 or three exceptions, for about three hours in the day. Both 

 therefore had got well used to the yellow paper. I then put 

 blue paper where the yellow had been, and put the yellow paper 

 with some honey on it about a foot off. Both the wasps returned 

 to the honey on the blue paper. I then moved both the papers 



LINN. JOUBN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XII. 36 



