OBSERVATIONS ON VESPA GERMANIC A. 461 



they were wood-scraping. Sometimes they tore up the end 

 of a splinter, and then there was great trouble in breaking 

 it off. Either they abandoned it, or else, holding it firmly 

 in their jaws and steadying it between the first pair of 

 legs, they stood firm on the others, and then threw their body 

 from side to side, tugging and pulling at the splinter till it 

 broke off. 



Once the first layer of the envelope was completed, they 

 used to ventilate the nest at night by waving their wings up 

 and down with very rapid vibrations, which in the confined 

 space between the combs produced a noise similar to a cat 

 purring. They generally kept it up from two to five minutes at 

 a time, then there would be a pause of varying length, some- 

 times an hour, sometimes only a few minutes, before the rumble 

 would recommence. On July 19th it was very hot, and they 

 kept up the ventilation most of the day, and I was very 

 fortunate in seeing one wasp actually at work at it. She came 

 up to the edge of the box, and stood there with lier head down, 

 her back arched up, and the end of the abdomen down ; this 

 position brought the thorax high up, making her into a semi- 

 circle. She stood so for eighteen consecutive minutes, waving 

 her wings up and down with such rapidity that they looked one 

 broad blur. She then rested for two minutes, recontinued for 

 four and a half, and after another short pause she again did it 

 for nine minutes. It was about this date that I killed one wasp 

 which showed the most unusual coloration of the head. The 

 trapezoidal- shaped spot and the antennae were wine-colour, and 

 the vertex had a broad yellow band across it which met the 

 yellow spots in the sini of the eyes, making it one continuous 

 yellow band from sinus to sinus. 



All this time I had been keeping a careful watch on the 

 amount of food brought in for the larvae, and by far the largest 

 part of this consisted of flies. Uusually only the trunk of the 

 body was brought back, both the wings and legs having been 

 carefully bitten off, but occasionally they were left on. Some- 

 times also they only brought back the thorax, or the thorax and 

 the head. On July 28th I counted the number of flies brought 

 into my nest during one hour. I commenced counting at 

 11.15 a.m., and by 12.15 they had brought in no fewer than 



