Insects. 6907 



growth, but eggs also in vast profusion. All the larvae that had 

 attained anything like their full size, or even half their full size, were 

 found to occupy each a separate cell, as is observed to be invariably 

 the case in all well-ordered nests, the parent wasp depositing only a 

 single egg in each cell ; but in the present instance, w^here the larvae 

 were minute in size, groups of three, and even four, apparently 

 varying slightly in age, were located in one cell. Some of the cells 

 contained an egg and one or two small larvae ; and some, two or 

 three eggs, a single e^^ in a cell being of rare occurrence. Many of 

 the cells had been almost demolished since the nest had been 

 removed from under ground, the walls having been gnawed away 

 nearly down to their base ; yet they contained eggs or small larvae. 

 That the larvae were those of wasps (I had a faint hope they might 

 have turned out to be those of Ripiphorus) the testimony of Mr. Douglas, 

 to whom some were sent for examination, proves beyond a doubt. It 

 may be well to remark that no additional cells had been formed in 

 any of the combs since their first removal. 



Neither among the wasps driven out of the nest before the covering 

 was removed, nor among those found to be congregated between the 

 combs after it had been removed, was one single individual observed 

 larger than a full-sized, plump worker ; nor, indeed, was it to be 

 expected, for it was at far too early a period in the season for the 

 young females, which are destined to become the foundresses of colo- 

 nies in the ensuing year, to have made their appearance ; nor could 

 the presence of a single male be detected ; and as the cells contained, 

 as before stated, larvae in every stage of their growth, as well as 

 nymphae in every stage of their advancement toward the perfect 

 state, it is obvious that since the removal of the nest from its under- 

 ground situation the process of egg-depositing must have been going 

 on from the first, at which period it is certain none but workers could 

 have been produced in any nest of this species. It must, therefore, 

 have been by one or more individuals of this class that these fertile 

 eggs were produced ! 



I may be allowed to cite two or three additional instances bearing 

 upon this subject. 



In a paper upon wasps, by Dr. Ormerod, of Brighton (Zool. 6641), 

 mention is made of a nest of Vespa britannica (norvegica. Smith) 

 having undergone three removes. On its first removal the stragglers, 

 four in number, among which, the writer remarks, " no wasp dis- 

 tinguishable by her larger size could be seen," set about the con- 

 struction of a fresh nest, which in the course of ten days was found to 



