OF THE WASP. 89 



<fec, but in what may be called a maiden-state ; consisting of ducts only, 

 without contents. About the beginning of October they copulate, and 

 then leave the hive and go to their hiding-places ; leaving behind some 

 labourers and males to die : but this will be sooner or later according 

 to the weather, which affords them provision. 



Of the Female Parts. — They consist of a vagina which lies under or 

 behind the first scale of the belly, just before the root of the sting ; so 

 that this opening is between the sting and the last scale : it passes a 

 little way into the cavity of the belly, and divides into two ducts. Each 

 of these two ducts receive at once six ducts in which the eggs lie, 

 making what may be called the ' ovaria ' of the right and left sides ; 

 which are separated from each other by the stomach or gut passing back 

 between them. These tAvo portions come into contact behind the 

 stomach, are united by the air-vessels, making but one bundle, which 

 becomes smaller and smaller towards their beginnings, where they seem 

 to begin insensibly small. The length of these ducts is very consider- 

 able ; for they pass up slightly convoluted, and would seem to arise as 

 high as the thorax ; when in an impregnated state the convolutions are 

 very considerable. When we examine the queen, when she is in the 

 height of breeding, we find these twelve ducts very much thickened, 

 being now filled with eggs of all sizes ; and when in such a state they 

 are much longer ; too long for the length of the abdomen, and are 

 therefore thrown into folds. They first pass up convoluted as high as 

 the thorax, and are again bent down upon themselves, passing along the 

 back, near to the termination of the abdomen, and up again to their 

 origin, which is as high as at the heart, where the canal passes out of 

 the thorax. As they pass from their origin, in the impregnated state, 

 they are becoming larger and larger, and of course the ova which they 

 contain are also larger, the lowermost being such as are just ready to 

 be laid. 



Of the Male. — The males are next in size ; they are rather larger than 

 the largest workers. They are longer in their belly, which is more 

 of an equal size through its whole length, terminating at the anus more 

 in a blunt end ; the last scale of the back of the abdomen terminates in 

 a broad edge, which projects much further than its corresponding scale 

 underneath. Their feelers or horns are much longer than those of the 

 workers or queens. The males I believe are the next formed [after the 

 workers] ; they are begun to be bred in August. In a hive that I 

 examined which had about six tiers of cells, there were a great many 

 eggs, maggots, and chrysalises in the cells. I deprived them of their 

 queen, and the labourers repaired the hive, continued to feed the 

 maggots that were hatched and those that were hatching, and, when 



