EDGEWOETH — ON IEISH VESPIDJ2. 101 



When making paper, they are often so occupied that they seem scarcely 

 disturbed by being touched. In some nests, from which I had removed 

 the outer covering, I found that a whole shell for a nest six inches in 

 diameter was built in two days. 



The nest of V. vulgaris in its natural state is extremely beautiful. 

 It is not composed of envelopes of paper, but of small pieces of brittle 

 substance, placed over each other, as Reaumur says, like inverted cockle- 

 shells. This is obviously a provision against damp, to which, from the 

 deep-seated situation of these nests, they are peculiarly exposed, and is 

 not to be found in the covering of V. rufa, which builds superficially in 

 a drier situation. When burrowing, if stones too large to be rolled or 

 carried out of the nest are met with, they are ingeniously excavated 

 under. Having dropped large stones into several nests, I invariably 

 found this to be the case. 



Food. — The food of V. vulgaris appears to be very various ; indeed, 

 this species seem to be able almost to eat anything. In the early 

 months of the year, whilst they are still rapacious, their diet seems to 

 be nearly exclusively animal ; but in the later months a vegetable fare 

 seems more grateful to their effeminated natures. They are said to be 

 very fond of bees. They devour raw meat, fish, sweet things of every 

 sort, flies, butterflies, spiders, and they have been observed even to kill 

 dragon flies. I have also several times seen them carry off the grubs 

 from an ant's nest which had been disturbed. 



Towards the autumn I have observed a most remarkable phenome- 

 non, that early in the morning our groves — especially beech, fir, larch, 

 and sycamore — actually swarm with Wasps. They chiefly infest the top 

 of the trees, and the immense numbers in which they are occasionally 

 present is most amazing. What their object is I do not know ; but it 

 may be to collect the defecations of the various flies which have swarmed 

 there the day before, or it may be to collect the honey dew, the secre- 

 tion of certain aphides, which is at that time peculiarly abundant. 

 This latter view is probably the correct one, as Mr. Curtis,* when ex- 

 perimenting on aphides, found that their secretions were devoured by 

 bees, Wasps, and ants, as quickly as produced. 



The nest which I now exhibit is that of the Vespa rufa. At Edge- 

 worthstown this is a very rare Wasp. No history, as far as I am aware, 

 has as yet been given of this Wasp, and therefore the facts I now lay 

 before the Society are of considerable interest. V. rufa differs in every 

 respect — in appearance, in size, in habits, and in disposition — from 

 V. vulgaris. What the humble bee is to the hive bee, that V. rufa is 

 to V. vulgaris. He is essentially a stupid Wasp. I believe that he is 

 innocuous to man, not stinging without great provocation, being seldom 

 found in the house, and not devouring fruit and groceries. But the 

 great difference, as far as I know, between the habits of V. vulgaris and 

 V. rufa is, that V. rufa makes paper like the tree Wasps, and V. vul- 



"Linnean Society's Transactions," 1802, p. 82. 



