16 
Psyche 
[March 
EXPERIMENTS IN HOUSING VESPINE COLONIES, 
WITH NOTES ON THE HOMING AND TOLERATION 
INSTINCTS OF CERTAIN SPECIES 
By Albro Tilton Gaul 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
During the summer of 1939 I made the following obser- 
vations on some species of the Vespinse at Lakeville, Conn. 
The work was not begun until early July when the wasp 
season had fairly advanced. 
Wasp nests were captured intact, anaesthetized and trans- 
ported to the laboratory for observation (1) . 
Hives were built to accommodate the various nests. These 
were wooden cases built into the open window apertures, 
and securely fastened and weatherstripped to keep the 
wasps out of the laboratory. Each hive was divided into 
several compartments by heavy cardboard partitions; each 
compartment provided a home for a single nest of hornets. 
The window face of the hive consisted of wire screening to 
admit air and light, and an adjustable aperture on the floor 
of the hive to control the egress of the hornets. In the 
laboratory each compartment was accessible through a slid- 
ing panel, with a glass observation window and a trapdoor. 
Nests were placed in compartments in positions as nearly 
normal as possible. 
When the anaesthetized colony was first placed in the 
hive, the aperture had to be closed to prevent the escape of 
the wasps. Unless this precaution were taken, the whole 
adult population of the nest would desert as soon as they 
were able to move. In one such case, the population was 
discovered rebuilding a nest within a few feet of the old 
nest site, although this was well over a mile from the 
laboratory. This desire to desert the nest only lasted a 
few hours ; a colony collected in the early evening could be 
permitted to gather food and paper pulp next morning. 
