Insects. 7263 



at Coketliorpe. There did not appear to be more than about twenty 

 workers developed at that date. 



I next discovered a second nest of V. rufa, which I dug out, and, 

 as before, left a number of the workers behind : these, as in the 

 former case, immediately set about the construction of a fresh nest. 



I now succeeded in finding one of V. vulgaris, which I duly took 

 possession of On digging it out I found that the original nest, after 

 having attained a considerable size, had succumbed to the incessant 

 rains which fell, and had fallen, with the exception of the upper comb, 

 to the bottom of the cavity in which it had been built, where it was 

 lying, a mass of decomposed and offensive matter. The parent wasp 

 would appear either to have perished with it or to have abandoned 

 the spot when the catastrophe occurred, as at the time I dug into it, 

 she was nowhere to be found, and, moreover, there was unmistakeable 

 evidence that she had had no hand in the work, or in directing the 

 work, of the nest which had arisen over the ruins of the original one. 

 On removing the covering the interior presented an appearance so 

 unlike the interior of one over which a queen presides that I at once 

 felt convinced no queen had ever set foot in it. No order or regularity 

 was observed in the disposition of the combs ; small ones, to the 

 number of seven, were to be seen stuck about here and there upon the 

 face of the original one, from which they depended, while the cells 

 were crowded with eggs or small larvae, one cell containing as many 

 as sixteen eggs, and but few less than five or six. The colony — for 

 having chloroformed I secured the whole lot — consisted exclusively of 

 workers, and they rather under than over the average size. On reaching 

 home I placed the nest, with the insects belonging to it, near the 

 window of an empty room, where the larvae were fed, and fresh eggs 

 continued to be deposited by these workers, but no attempt was made 

 to renew the covering or to construct fresh cells. 



I now took out one of the nests of V. rufa that had been formed 

 by the workers after the removal of the original one, and in a 

 few days afterwards the other. Each contained a single comb, that 

 in the former being about an inch and a half in diameter, and 

 the latter about an inch. The cells in each contained a profusion 

 of eggs as well as larvae of various sizes. In many of the cells 

 the larvae had become full fed and had spun themselves up, in 

 which case, as well as where they had attained to anything like their 

 full size, they occupied each a separate cell, while each of the remaining 

 cells contained either a group of eggs or a number of larvae. Both 

 these colonies consisted of workers of the ordinary size, the whole of 



