2614 Insects. 



which has not (T believe) been referred to by previous observers ; namely, that bees 

 are enabled to secrete, when required for sealing brood comb, scales of yellow wax. 

 It has generally been supposed that the yellow colour is owing to a varnish applied 

 by the bees, and to the odour of the hive. We are aware that they do occasionally 

 apply a varnish to newly-constructed comb ; but we have repeatedly observed the 

 protruding scales of wax, of the same yellow tinge as that of the sealing of the brood 

 comb : they are of a softer nature and larger than the pure white scales required in 

 the construction and sealing of the honey cells. — George Fox; Duncombe Street, 

 Kingsbrook, 8th mo. 31, 1849. 



Extraordinary produce of Honey. — Some beautiful boxes of honey have fallen to 

 my share this season ; one, perhaps, almost unprecedented, when we consider the 

 weight of its contents, its purity, and the rapidity with which it was filled. The box 

 was supered on its stock hive on the 4th of June, and taken in six weeks and three 

 days, the weight of pure sealed comb being 68£ Fbs. (averaging more than 1^ ft), 

 per day). The stock hive itself remains in situ, exceedingly weighty. A collateral 

 hive has given me two boxes, of 49 ft>s. and 38 ft>s. respectively ; the stock hive also 

 being left untouched and very heavy : neither of these colonies have been allowed to 

 swarm. — Id. 



Seasonal abundance or scarcity of the Common Wasp. — Some of the Hymenoptera 

 (bees, e. g. wasps, ants, &c.) exhibit perhaps more of mind, if I may be allowed the 

 expression, than almost any other insects. They live in societies, and these extremely 

 well regulated ; so much so as to afford a pattern to ourselves in many points, if we 

 would condescend to be taught by such humble examples. I fancy we have much to 

 learn yet about the natural history and economy of these creatures. However, I am 

 not going either to moralize or to enlarge on subjects beyond my own knowleege : my 

 purpose at present is a much more simple one. I merely wish to state a fact, in the 

 hope that some one else may be able to account for it. It is, I believe, a commonly 

 received opinion, and one that appears reasonable, that the large wasps which have 

 hybernated, or survived the winter in a torpid state, and appear in the early spring, 

 are breeders, each being the founder of a colony or nest for the ensuing summer ; and 

 accordingly we sometimes hear of rewards, of so much per dozen or score, being 

 offered for all the wasps destroyed before — say the first of May or other early period, 

 and this under the impression that the destruction of a spring wasp is in fact the 

 destruction of a whole brood, which otherwise would have infested us in the summer ; 

 just in the same way, as if one were to destroy a pair of partridges in April or May, 

 there would be one covey less for the sportsman in September. I have, however, 

 found by experience, and, I believe, more than once recorded the fact (in the ' Maga- 

 zine of Natural History '), that " an abundant flight of spring wasps is no sure 

 earnest of a corresponding summer flight," but rather the contrary. I mean that if 

 wasps are abundant in the spring they are scarce in the summer, and vice versA, if 

 they are scarce in the spring they are abundant in the summer. At any rate this 

 often happens ; and the remark has been signally exemplified in the present and pre- 

 ceding year. In the spring of 1848 wasps were unusually abundant: I used to kill 

 several every morning, for many days in succession, about the end of April and early 

 in May, in the greenhouse windows : some of my neighbours remarked their abun- 

 dance as well as myself. In the summer of the same year wasps were remarkably 

 scarce, — more so, I think, than I ever knew them to be. It was a great gooseberry 

 year with us, of which fruit, I need hardly say, these insects are exceedingly fond. 



