Entomological Society. 6941 



The Hyhernation of Vespa vulgaris. 



*' It is very evident that we have a great deal yet to learn about the social wasps, 

 and therefore the following remarks as to Vespu vulgaris may be interesting. Ever 

 since 1829 I have, at intervals, searched ihe summit of Skiddaw (3022 feet) for speci- 

 mens of Leistus montanus, and on every occasion have taken out from underneath the 

 loose fragments of the slate perfectly torpid females of this wasp, with the wings, legs, 

 antennae, &c., precisely in the state in which we find them during winter in ihe lower 

 lands. Not unfrequently I have met with dead specimens which seemed to have 

 perished in the same dormant state, and been there for a year or two at least, 

 Mr. Smiih, in his ' Catalogne of the British Vespidae,' under this species, states that 

 ' Mr. VVollaston found the female abundant under stones on the extreme summit of 

 Gribon Oernant, near Llangollen, in September, 1851,' adding ' probably hybernating 

 for the winter,' but had evidently forgotten my writing him on the same subject. My 

 visits to the mountain have extended from the latter end of June to the latter end of 

 August, and therefore it necessarily follows either that these specimens of the female 

 wasp were those of the previous year, or that this sex appears much earlier in the sea- 

 son than has been hitherto supposed. But in either case, the question arises why are 

 they torpid during these the hottest months of the year? It is quite true that the 

 temperature at the altitude is below that of the plains, especially during the night, and 

 I have myself been enveloped in falling sleet and snow more than once, both in June 

 and August, though as a rule the Cumberland mountains seldom have a thick covering 

 of snow, and often only a few inches once or twice in a winter. Slill, ihe temperature of 

 ordinary mountains always approaches that of the plains in summer, and one would 

 have expected was in Britain at least sufficiently high to rouse these wasps in their 

 winter quarters, when every other insect under the same stones was active and 

 stirring, and the air so warm and bright that Larentia salicata and Crambus furca- 

 tillus were sporting in the mid-day sun above ihem. Such, however, was not the case, 

 and when turned out of their snug, dry quarters, they allowed themselves to be 

 handled and put into pill-boxes just as they do in winter. We may therefore ask, 

 when are these sleepers to awake ? for as the ground temperature reaches its maximum 

 during the months in which I have met with ihem, and Mr. Wollaston has found 

 them in a similar state in September, when a declining temperature has set in, 

 we must conclude that for that year all prospect of their subsequent issue from their 

 retreats through the influence of heat is barred. Can this be called hybernation as it 

 is usually understood ? Or is there some other cause of torpidity besides mere cold ? 

 Or are we to conclude that when once put to sleep in these lofty regions they wake no 

 more unless kindly removed into a milder clime by a stray entomologist, when, as I 

 have always noticed, they become as active as those of the warm lowlands? 



" I have searched in vain for the record of similar facts in other parts of Europe, 

 where, doubtless, the same circumstances occur, and therefore I send this note to the 

 Society with the hope of calling the attention of others to the subject." 



Mr. Weslwood considered that these female wasps had been the founders of 

 colonies in the preceding spring, and after performing their maternal duties, had 

 retired to die in the situations in which they were found by Mr. Wailes. 



