Volume VIII 
JULY, 1911 
NOS. 1 AND 2 
BIOMETRIKA. 
A THIRD COOPERATIVE STUDY OF VESPA VULGARIS. 
COMPARISON OF QUEENS OF A SINGLE NEST WITH 
QUEENS OF THE GENERAL AUTUMN POPULATION. 
By E. Y. THOMSON, JULIA BELL, M.A., and KARL PEARSON, F.R.S. 
(1) Scope and Material. 
In our first study* the differences between queens, drones and workers from 
a single nest of Vespa vulgaris were investigated. In our second studyf we 
compared the queens of this single nest with the queens of a general population 
gathered in the spring, i.e. after the winter selection had taken place. The main 
result of that comparison was that the spring population queens were about twice 
as variable as the nest queens. The same reduction in variability between nest 
and general populations had practically been reached by Dr Warren \ in dealing 
with Natal termites, who attributed it largely to environmental influence. No 
theory of heredity seemed sufficient to account for such a large reduction, even 
with indefinite inbreeding. An American writer of distinction § suggested that 
our general population might consist of queens from one or two nests ; he did 
not seem to recognise that this would render more difficult of explanation than 
ever the marked difference in variability, and further was incompatible with the 
fact that the wasps were collected after winter hibernation in all parts of a large 
parish, many square miles in extent. On a small farm in an adjacent district 
within a few weeks in July, 1909, 40 nests alone were destroyed, and this was not 
a fruit farm, nor was the destruction considered anything unusual by the bailiff. 
We may safely take it that the autumn nests in the area from which we drew 
our spring supplies were to be reckoned rather by thousands than hundreds, and 
that the chances that our spring wasps came from one or two nests are absolutely 
negligible. 
* Biometrika, Vol. v. p. 407. t Ibid. Vol. vn. p. 48. J Ibid. Vol. vi. p. 329. 
§ The American Naturalist, Vol. xliv. p. 310, with reply by Pearson, Ibid. Vol. xliv. p. 503. 
Biometrika vm \ 
