6654 



Insects. 



Early in the summer I placed several queens of V. germanica and 

 V. vulgaris in a tall case, made with a division half-way down, across 

 which a turf was laid ; the spaces above and below ground being pro- 

 vided with all that wasps could wish for, and a free access from the 

 lower to the upper regions being secured by notches cut in the edge 

 of the turf. But to no purpose : the wasps flew about and fed 

 freely, and were very sisterly one to auother ; but they would not 

 build. And when they died, one after another, by a natural process 

 or by the help of chloroform, I found a diseased condition of the 

 respiratory organs, all the air-tubes of the abdomen being thick and 

 opaque, matted together, containing very little air, and wholly unlike 

 the loose transparent structures which dissection of a newly-caught 

 wild wasp displays ; but the ovaries were for the most part distinct, 

 and distended with developing eggs ; and I suppose that only liberty 

 was wanting for a free use of their wings to have converted each of 

 these queens into the mother of a thriving colony, could 1 only 

 have been sure that they would have built in the place 1 had prepared 

 for them ; but I never saw any more of one which I released after 

 having familiarized her with the spot. With no family cares to recall 

 her to my study window, she preferred to seek a home elsewhere. 



Tt was not to be expected that they would undertake the charge of 

 a nest already begun, and nurse the young grubs. In the absence of 

 such care I have never succeeded in rearing wasps from grubs, or 

 even from nymphae. The grubs will eat honey and water readily 

 enough ; but after a few days their movements become less active, 

 and they die. This might be due in part to the less regular aud later 

 hours of the artificial feeding; but there was something in the nursing 

 of the wasps which the grubs needed, and which I could not supply. 

 It does not seem to make much difference in the hatching whether 

 the cells are in the natural position ; for a broken comb, laid with its 

 face upwards, under the care of its rightful owners, became a very 

 thriving colony. But the care displayed in covering in the exposed 

 comb seemed to show that an uniform temperature and the exclusion 

 of light were necessary to the well-being of little wasps ; and for 

 want of these attentions nymphae which had just finished weaving 

 the silk caps of their cells died inside them, and others which were 

 almost ready to hatch died without coming forwards. The grubs, 

 however, do hatch often enough to make it very unsafe to leave 

 a fresh piece of comb lying about the house. 



My attempts to study wasps in confinement at a later stage were 

 more successful. A small nest of V. germanica, with six stages of 



