6908 Insects. 



contain a small comb, consisting of eight cells, " with distinct eggs in 

 them," These eggs, it appears, came to nothing when the nest was 

 sent to the writer, at Brighton, — a circumstance doubtless arising 

 from some cause connected with its removal. On the original nest 

 being removed a second time, it is stated that the stragglers, which 

 were move numerous than on the former occasion, built another. This 

 in the course of two or three weeks was found to contain " two tiers of 

 cells, the upper one full of grubs." 



On the 12th of last July I dug out a nest of Vespa rufa. It was 

 situated in the deserted burrow of a mole. The parent wasp and a 

 few of the workers were brought away with it, while the rest, about 

 thirty in number, were left behind. These were soon observed to be 

 busily engaged in constructing a fresh nest in the same burrow, and 

 close to the spot from which the former one had been removed. On 

 the 26th I took possession of this nest, which measured about 1^ inch 

 in diameter, and contained a small comb of an irregular shape, the 

 cells in which numbered thirty-two, some containing eggs, and some 

 small larvae. The covering of the nest was at least four times the 

 thickness one of the same size, constructed by a single female, would 

 have been. None but wasps of the ordinary size, or those commonly 

 kno\vn as workers, were found to be connected with it. 



Now, although these facts may not amount to absolute proof, do 

 they not point to the probability that, in colonies of wasps, the 

 workers, or imperfectly-developed females, may become so far deve- 

 loped as to have the power of producing fertile eggs, and that with- 

 out previous connexion with the male sex? This further development, 

 however, does not ordinarily take place, occurring only when some 

 extraordinary circumstance has arisen which renders it necessary or 

 desirable. 



I must now return to the parasites, which, as already stated, con- 

 tinued to emerge from the cells after the covering of the nest had 

 been removed. 



The lower comb contained twelve covered cells, and to these 

 my attention was principally directed, in consequence of the cap or 

 covering of each appearing to me to be more pointed in form than 

 those usually spun by the larvae of wasps. Presently I observed 

 a pair of jaws, from the inside of one, running rapidly round the 

 crown, and cutting a circular piece not quite out, but sufficiently 

 near to enable the insect, which proved to be a specimen of Ripi- 

 phorus, to effect its escape by pushing up the piece it had cut, and 

 leaving it like the lid of a vessel attached by a hinge, just as the 



