Selby on Wasps. 181 



our district, viz. the V. vulgaris, V. rufa, and V. Britannica. 

 I suspect, however, from two or three specimens I took some 

 years ago, but which I have unfortunately mislaid, or lost, that 

 the V. arborea of Smith may also inhabit the district ; and as 

 the V. sylvestris, Scop., the V. holsatica of Fab., has been met 

 with as far north as Newcastle, it is not improbable that its 

 limits may in time be extended still further to the north, or 

 within the limits of our district. Of the three species above 

 enumerated, the V. vulgaris is upon the whole most abundant, 

 and more widely dispersed than either the V. rufa or V. Britan- 

 nica, which, in consequence of their peculiar habit and osconomy, 

 are confined to wooded and enclosed districts, as the former of 

 these species makes its nest in hedge-banks, or among the roots 

 of trees, near the surface, the latter suspending their nests from 

 the branches of trees, outhouses, &c, whereas the V. vulgaris 

 invariably nidificates in the earth, forming a cavity sometimes at 

 a considerable depth and distance from the surface, the adit to 

 it being usually the deserted burrow of the field-mouse or the 

 mole. 



It is scarcely necessary to remind the Members of the Club, 

 that every wasp-nest originates with a single female* that has 

 survived in her hybernaculum, or winter retreat, the severities 

 of the previous winter storms ; or that all the colony proceeding 

 from her, and sometimes amounting, before the close of the year, 

 to many thousand individuals, perish on the approach of cold 

 weather, except a very limited number of impregnated females 

 or queens, which disperse and look out for a safe retreat during 

 the hiemal months. The period of egress from that dormant 

 and inactive state is regulated by the temperature of the season ; 

 thus I find that the V. Britannica and V. rufa invariably appear 

 in the spring before the Common Wasp, and as soon as the 

 temperature rises to 48° or 50°, which sometimes happens early 

 in April ; the V. vulgaris is seldom seen before the first week in 

 May. In consequence of this difference in the first appearance 

 of these insects, the nests of the V. Britannica are already far 

 advanced before the V. vulgaris has commenced her labours v 

 and the colonies of the former species have reached their ultimate 

 destination, viz. the production of males and females, the latter 

 to become the founders of the next year's nests, before those 

 of the V. vulgaris have reached a similar state. As Kirby and 

 Spence, in their delightful and instructive work, the ' Intro- 

 duction to Entomology/ as well as other authors, have already 

 described the habits and ceconomy of the Wasp, it is unneces- 



* See Kirby and Spence, Introduction to Entomology, vol. i. pp. 374 

 and 507 ; and Westwood's Class. Ins. vol. ii. p. 248, 



