Insects. 3701 



exceedingly tough, and are with difficulty broken asunder ; whilst 

 those of the last-mentioned species are of a delicate texture, and in 

 some instances, when the wasps have used decayed wood in their 

 construction, they will scarcely bear the touch. 



The community of V. Norwegica which I obtained, consisted of 

 about 100 females and 150 workers, but not more than twenty males ; 

 the latter sex having left the nest during the hot weather in July, and 

 had not returned at night.* 



The species to which I have applied the name Norwegica, is iden- 

 tical with the Vespa Britannica of Leach. The name was first used 

 by Fabricius in his 'Entomologia Systematica; ' and we subsequently 

 learn, on turning to his 'Systema Piezatorum,' that the sex described 

 is a worker or neuter wasp, as reference is there made to Panzer's 

 ' Fauna Germanica,' 81, tab. 16, which correctly represents that sex. 

 And this is further established by the fact, that only this sex and the 

 male have the rufous macula on each side of the second segment of 

 the abdomen ; and although, in the majority of instances, the scutel- 

 lum has a minute spot on each side in the workers, still others are with- 

 out them, and they are easily overlooked. This tree-wasp has been 

 returned to me with the name Norwegica by every continental ento- 

 mologist to whom I have submitted it, and I feel satisfied that our in- 

 sect is identical. None of the females which I bred, or others which 

 I have seen, have a rufous macula at the sides of the second abdomi- 

 nal segment; which is a still further proof that the specimen described 

 by Fabricius was a neuter. 



During the present season I found a nest of Vespa vulgaris, the first 

 comb of which was in progress ; only seven workers had been develop- 

 ed ; four cells were closed, the rest of the cells having either eggs, or 

 larvae in different stages of progress. The number of complete cells 

 was twenty ; those from which the workers had emerged were already 

 cleaned out, and each contained an egg, which was attached at one 

 of the angles about one-third within the depth of the cell. The cells 

 in progress nearly all contained eggs or larvae ; indeed, except four 

 or five which were scarcely raised above their foundations, all were 

 occupied. 



It has been stated by some naturalists, that the nursing wasps 

 close in the cells of full-fed larvae. I can only suppose this error to 

 have originated in mistaken observation ; and that instead of their 

 closing in full-fed larvae, they were occupied in rendering assistance to 



* Mr. Foxcroft, the collector, captured male wasps in the night, at sugar used to 

 attract Lepidoptera. 



