98 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



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 ascertain the usual locality 

 selected by each different Wasp. The nests of V. vulgaris are gene- 

 rally formed in dry banks, in the roots of decayed trees, and occasionally 

 in the thatch of cottages, or other similar places, but may almost occur 

 anywhere. Mr. Smith says he has seen one in a pump. In the " Trans- 

 actions of the Ashmolean Society" (xx. 3), a nest was found in a loaf of 

 sugar, the shell being partly composed of the surrounding thin paper. 

 I have seen nests in a turfstack, under a window-sill, and in the bottom 

 of a barrel of brown sugar. All the larger nests are to be found in dry 

 sunny spots ; but the Wasps always seem to like water near them ; they 

 also generally build near houses, or at least in cultivated places, and I 

 have seldom found a nest in any exposed situation. It is also a most 

 singular and remarkable fact, which I do not remember having seen 

 noticed, that Vespa vulgaris invariably builds beside the nest of a wild 

 bee, either Bombus terrestris or B. agrestis. In about 90 per cent, of 

 nests I find this to be the case, and the only exceptions to this rule seem 

 to be those nests situated in such anomalous positions as pumps and 

 sugar loaves. It is often, however, very difficult to find the nest of the 

 wild bee, which frequently consists of only a dozen individuals. On 

 examining the combs of these wild bees, there does not seem to me less 

 honey than there ought to be, though the Wasps may be often seen go- 

 ing in and out familiarly. 



Wasps, if possible, choose a sloping place in which to build, so that 

 the earth they have been mining may easily roll out of the hole ; so 

 much so, that at the entrance of their nest a quantity of loose earth is 

 generally to be seen, as if a mouse had been burrowing. Sometimes V. 

 vulgaris builds under the thick tapestry of moss that drapes our old 

 banks ; but, as a rule, it burrows deeper in the earth than any other 

 species of Wasp. Reaumur states that the holes of Wasps' nests are 

 generally curved. This, however, seems to me to be the exception, and 

 the largest nests generally have short straight holes. It is, moreover, 

 reasonable that this should be so, as the Wasps have less distance to 

 carry out the earth they excavate. 



Habits. — To observe the habits and domestic manners of Wasps, I 

 found it necessary that the nests should be conveniently near the house. 

 Any nest may be removed in the following manner, which I have always 

 employed, and found easy and efficacious: — Having found a nest about 

 the middle of July, stop up the mouth of the hole with wet mud, so that 

 the Wasps cannot go in or out. As each Wasp returns to the mouth of 

 the hole, knock him down with a leafy branch, and then quickly seize 

 him, and put him into a glass tumbler, with a piece of board over it for 

 a lid. When all the returning Wasps are thus secured, with a small 

 stick bore a hole in the soft mud, large enough to emit a Wasp, and as 

 each of the Wasps inside issues through this narrow passage, catch, and 

 put him into the tumbler. When all the inhabitants are thus captured, 

 remove the earth from the cells, and gently lift them into a washhand 



