OBSERVATIONS ON VESPA GERMANIC A. 459 



The next morning, July 15th, three more wasps had com- 

 pleted their development, while the five of the previous evening 

 were quite active, and appeared to me from the way they were 

 moving about to be already tending the larvae. I lifted the top 

 comb out of the box, and held it in my hand to watch them 

 more closely, and they strayed on to my hand apparently without 

 alarm or resentment till suddenly one stung my finger most 

 viciously. I put the comb back rather hastily, though the 

 others were quite calm. I did not feel inclined to put my 

 fingers too near them again, so, as they had to be fed, I placed 

 pieces of paper well soaked in honey between the combs. They 

 ate it eagerly, and by this means I managed to keep them well 

 supplied with food all day. There was something rather 

 pathetic in the eight plucky little workers trying to keep the 

 nest going, although they had no queen and about one hundred 

 and twenty larvae to tend. On July 16th, when I settled down 

 to watch them, I found they were cutting a larva to pieces and 

 giving the little bits to the others. I don't know if it was a dead 

 larva or whether they had killed it under stress of circumstances. 

 Evidently the honey was not considered a sufficiently nutritious 

 diet. I extracted several pupae and, killing them, placed them 

 on one of the combs. The wasps at once crowded round them, 

 cut small pieces off, and ran away with the chunks to give to 

 the larvae. In fifteen minutes not a morsel was left. Some 

 more wasps had emerged, but exactly what their numbers were 

 I could not tell, as they moved about too quickly for me to 

 count them. In the middle of the morning one bolder than 

 the rest flew out of the box, and after a moment's zigzagging 

 in front of it, evidently to memorize its position, it darted 

 out of the window. In three and a half minutes it was back 

 again, flew straight to the box without a moment's hesita- 

 tion and disappeared within. What a marvellous memory 

 they have ! 



On July 18th I put in the box during the course of the day 

 seven dead pupae, six caterpillars, a blue-bottle fly, and half an 

 ounce of honey, but by 7.30 p.m. not a scrap of any kind was 

 left. Moreover, five or six of the wasps were in and out all day 

 foraging for themselves. More imagos had emerged, in fact, 

 each day now added its quota of fresh members to the com- 



2 n2 



