100 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OP DUBLIN. 



ber no grubs will be found in the nest. I have carefully watched many- 

 times to observe this tragical denouement, but have hitherto been always 

 quite unsuccessful. 



The love which "Wasps display both for their young and for the place 

 of their birth is very remarkable. I have seen them linger for upwards 

 of twenty days around some fragment of their cells, when the nest itself 

 had been carried away. Wasps very soon become familiarized with any 

 animal, or with man. I was only once stung by all my Wasps, and 

 then it was because I went in the dark ; and they were not in the least 

 disturbed by my presence, or by my taking the glass cover off their nest. 

 I remember, also, once having seen a field mouse and a nest of Wasps 

 share a common hole, and the mouse used to go in and out with perfect 

 impunity. Moreover, the presence of other Wasps does not disturb their 

 equanimity. 



On one occasion I planted four colonies of Wasps together, each in a 

 separate compartment, but with four minor holes opening into one large 

 one, like four doors opening into a lobby. They all flourished magnifi- 

 cently ; the Wasps of each nest never mistook;;their own hole, and the 

 most perfect equanimity and good will prevailed. Again, I once bisected 

 two nests, and put the two halves of the dissimilar nests together, and 

 both halves were soon surrounded with a common shell, and amalga- 

 mated into one nest. 



Mode of constructing the Nest. — The nest is originally constructed 

 by one wasp, the queen, who, about the middle of April, having selected 

 a suitable spot, commences her labour thus : — From a fibre or stone she 

 builds down a short pillar, to the end of which are attached two or 

 three ill-shaped cellsj and this is surrounded by a single envelope of 

 paper. I once had the good fortune to see a nest in this state. This 

 nest is constantly enlarged by adding new layers to the outside, and by 

 cutting away the inner layers. All ground Wasps attach their nests to 

 a fibre, or some solid thing ; and in this respect their nest resembles that 

 of a tree Wasp, in being suspended from a single point, and not being 

 touched by the surrounding earth. Moreover, the concave surrounding 

 walls of earth are always lined with a parietal layer of paper, indepen- 

 dent of the covering of the nest, so that the nest can be taken out quite 

 perfect, leaving this behind. 



The material of which the nest is built varies, and is, in point of 

 fact, very characteristic of each species of Wasp. The V. vulgaris ge- 

 nerally uses very rotten wood, and as far as my observation goes, prac- 

 tically and microscopically, generally coniferous. I have frequently 

 observed the workers cutting wood or palings, and found they always 

 selected the bark of larch or fir. 



The workers collect in about twelve minutes little bundles of these 

 ligneous fibres, which seem frequently to be mingled with structures of 

 a fungoid nature, and then, returning to the nest, in about three minutes, 

 roll out the little ball with their hind legs, and, moistening it with a 

 viscid secretion, spread it into paper. Each Wasp seems to have no de- 

 finite place for working, but commences where his predecessor ceased. 



