SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



7i 



thereto, packed in layers in boxes, between sheets 

 of blotting-paper, for the purpose of comparison 

 and study, and brought away when I returned 

 home in the middle of August. Unfortunately, 

 a removal from town to country, and from a 

 dry house to a damp, followed by a long period 

 during which it was impossible so much as even to 

 look over my collections, resulted in moth and 

 mite and mould and woodlouse (Atropos) making 

 such havoc amongst them all that nearly the 

 whole were lost ; in fact, only a sorry remnant 

 was left, and the labour of very many years 

 was more or less entirely wasted. Fortunately, 

 however, though all the wasps layered in boxes 

 were thrown away, most of my wasps' nests were 

 retained, or as much of them as their would-be 

 destroyers had left, and were again carefully baked 

 in an oven to destroy the pests and preserve the 

 remnant. Otherwise the following observations 

 on the relationship existing between the V. austriaca 

 and the V , rufa would have been impossible. 



On thinking over the subject of the possible 

 parasitism of the V. austriaca upon other species 

 of Vespae, as suggested by Schmiedeknect, it 

 seemed most probable that, such being the case, 

 the rufous wasp (V . rufa), with its milder temper 

 and frequent comparatively small communities, 

 would be the more likely of the species to have 

 thus imposed upon it the rearing of the brood of 

 the cuckoo-wasp. The imposition would be 

 assisted by the close general resemblance of the 

 parasite to the host — of the pseudo Vespa to the 

 true Vespa. Further, where from the loss of the 

 queen, from accident or disease, the main-guard to 

 prevention of access to the cells was removed, there 

 would probably be little if any opposition on the 

 part of the workers to prevent the parasite from 

 attaining her ends, as the probability is they 

 might not even detect the fraud. In this case it 

 would be but an instance of one individual enter- 

 ing in upon the labours of another and utilizing 

 them for its own benefit. Such would be of not 

 infrequent occurrence in the parasitism existing 

 between the V . austriaca and other species of Vespae, 

 as it undoubtedly would be in the similar form of 

 parasitism existing between the pseudo humble- 

 bees (Psithyri) and the true humble-bees (Bombi). 

 This scarce admits of a doubt, since vast numbers 

 of both queen Vespae and queen Bombi are 

 destroyed annually, and their nests thus left open 

 to the intrusion of their several inquilines and 

 enemies. 



Consequently, it was not without some little 

 feeling of excitement that I began to examine the 

 nest of the Vespa rufa, from which I had seen borne, 

 fully ten years previously, the mutilated carcase of 

 a female V. austriaca, to find what it might possibly 

 reveal about the latter species of wasp as an 

 inquiline. I commenced on the eight large and 



perfect female or queen cocoons in the central 

 region of the second and lower tier of comb which 

 surrounded the four already vacated similar cells 

 in the very centre. My delight and satisfaction 

 may be imagined at rinding, as cap after cap of the 

 several cocoons or cells was cut open, that beneath 

 them lay concealed the heads of perfect females 

 or queen Vespa austriaca, with their characteristic 

 yellow-scaped antennae and three-spotted " sub- 

 dentate " clypeus. At least in six instances this 

 was so out of the eight ; and in three of these the 

 imago was fully developed, with wings expanded 

 and all parts of the body divested of the pupal 

 pellicle, having been, when death overtook them, 

 on the eve of emergence from their several cells or 

 cocoons. The seventh nymph, or pupa, had had 

 its head entirely consumed, and the thorax with 

 appendages much disfigured by one or more of 

 the pests of collections already enumerated, but the 

 abdomen was intact, and its colours and characters 

 were unquestionably those of V. austriaca. The 

 eighth nymph was much younger, and its colours 

 were not yet evolved ; but there is no reason 

 whatever to doubt that it, too, is an austriaca, as 

 would be in all probability the four young females 

 that were in the nest when it was taken on 

 August 2nd, 1887, which had but recently emerged 

 from the four vacated central cells. 



Turning my attention now to the male or drone 

 cocoons immediately succeeding and surrounding 

 the female cells, I found many of them to contain 

 the distinguishable remains of njmphsor pupae; 

 but in none of even the furthest developed of these 

 pupae had there yet been any evolution of the 

 colours, whilst many of them had had their in- 

 mates reduced to powder by mites and mould. On 

 the extreme margin of the series one or more of 

 the spinning-up larvae had not yet got finished 

 the silken cap or covering to the cell when the 

 nest was taken, and they were destroyed. 



Next laying open and examining the numerous 

 drone cells occupying an intermediate zone of two 

 and three cells' depth in the upper tier of comb, 

 they were found in several instances to contain 

 drones of the V. rufa, with their colours and 

 distinctive markings fully evolved, and in two 

 instances at least with the wings expanded and 

 body freed of the pupal pellicle. In other cases 

 the pupae were younger, and their colours were 

 not yet evolved ; whilst in very many the inmates 

 of the cocoons were more or less reduced to shreds 

 and dust. The wonder perhaps is that anything in 

 the shape of wasps remained after so long an 

 interval and under such circumstances. 



Thus far I had been disappointed in my search 

 for identifiable remains of the male sex of th 

 V. austriaca; and there now only remained a 

 much broken zone of one cell depth of unvacated 

 cccoons on the outer edge of this, the upper tier 



