Insects. 



6653 



each comb hangs from the one immediately above it, none of the pil- 

 lars, not even the central one, being regularly continuous throughout, 

 the increase of weight necessitates a great change in the mode of sus- 

 pension of the uppermost comb from which all the rest hang. So, 

 in a large nest additional bearings are formed for the two or three 

 highest combs by working them into the outer case ; the highest is 

 worked entirely into the cap of the nest; the succeeding stages are 

 only worked in at the edge, and, the cells being cut away, room is 

 gained here for a general place of assembly for the swarm. In these 

 large operations the little delicate egg-shell in which the colony first 

 was housed is almost lost; but I have sometimes been able to dis- 

 cover its remains in the apex of the nest. 



I have already expressed a doubt of the correctness of the opinion 

 that the nest is always built and the colony founded by a single 

 female, as far as concerns V. britannica. This doubt rests in part on 

 some observations on a colony of this species which rebuilt their 

 nests and laid eggs in the cells three times within periods far too 

 short for any of these eggs to have produced wasps, and at a season 

 too early for new queens to have been developed or impregnated. 

 Several wasps, larger than the rest, were seen engaged in building the 

 nests; but no single wasp was seen so much larger than all the rest 

 as to be considered as the queen par excellence. These wasps had 

 the faint rufous stains distinguishing queens of this species ; and the 

 ovaries were distinct, though not distended with eggs. So that, as 

 far as these observations go, we may conclude that these queens were 

 of the former year, and joint founders, though not evidently mothers, 

 of the new colony. 



I am still further inclined to accept this conclusion from the cir- 

 cumstance, already alluded to, of the embryo nest of V. britannica not 

 being of an uniform colour and structure, as if it were not exclusively 

 the work of one individual ; and also from the very large number of 

 queen grubs which are to be found in the lower combs of this species, 

 as compared with V. germanica. 



The observations thus far recorded were made on wasps in a free 

 state, either outside my study window at Brighton or by my sisters in 

 Gloucestershire. The strong attachment of wasps for their young 

 makes them disregard annoyances and changes which would render 

 similar experiments on other insects quite fruitless. But liberty is 

 indispensable to the exercise of a wasp's faculties ; and my observa- 

 tions on wasps in cages, for want of this, proved very unsatisfactory. 

 \et these negative results are not altogether without interest. 



