Insects. 5169 



On the Marnier in which Vespa rufa builds its Nest. 

 By Frederick Smith, Esq. 



In the first, ninth and tenth volumes of the ' Zoologist,' I published 

 papers on the social wasps of Great Britain ; all the known species 

 were described, and many particulars of their economy were added. 

 One object of my present communication is to furnish an answer to a 

 question which has been repeatedly put to me, " How do wasps build 

 their nests?" I have also a second object in view, that of furnishing 

 some additional testimony in refutation of the ingenious theory pub- 

 lished under the article " Bee," in the * Penny Magazine.' Lord 

 Brougham, in the Appendix to his ' Natural Theology,' has ably de- 

 monstrated the untenable nature of the hypothesis which is thus briefly 

 characterized: — "It is supposed that the bee first makes cylindrical 

 excavations, which are separated from each other at their contact by 

 the thickness of the wall intended to be formed, and then cuts away 

 so as to make the cylinders hexagonal prisms, the walls being of that 

 thickness." 



In the first place we will proceed to show how a wasp's nest is con- 

 structed, and, in the next, upon what basis the above theory stands, 

 and we may also then enquire into the value of EffifTon's theory of a 

 number of cylinders by pressure upon each other naturally taking the 

 hexagonal form, and so producing the beautiful combs of the honey- 

 bee. 



A wasp's nest is commenced by a single female, one of a brood of 

 the previous season, which has passed the winter in a state of tor- 

 pidity ; the warm days of spring arouse her from her winter's sleep, 

 and she issues from her hybernaculum in search of a suitable place 

 in which to commence the construction of the vesparium. Having 

 found some hole or tunnel in a bank, she proceeds to fashion and 

 adapt it to her purpose. 



Observing a female wasp ( Vespa rufa) apparently in search of the 

 entrance to her nest, I watched and observed her enter a circular orifice 

 in a bank ; on digging to the depth of about eight or ten inches I came 

 to a chamber about three inches in diameter, in the centre of which was 

 suspended a globular nest, one inch and a half in diameter : the nest 

 was attached by a footstalk to the root of a plant which crossed the 

 top of the chamber ; the nest closely resembled in form a half-blown 

 rose, hanging downwards on its stalk ; it contained a single comb of 

 cells, which was seven-eighths of an inch in diameter; the number of 

 xiv. 2 i 



