64 
Psyche 
[March 
showed this most clearly (Fig. 9). In comb 3 (Fig. 7), since the 
empty cells peripheral to the pupae had meconia, at least one com- 
plete generation of brood had been produced by this comb, and the 
pupae present belonged to a second generation. Since combs 1 and 
2 were probably older than 3, it can be assumed that comb 1 had 
produced two complete generations and that the pupae of comb 2 
were vestiges of the second generation. Comb 4 was then probably 
of approximately the same age as 3, and its pupae were of the second 
generation. Comb 5 had probably contained larvae of the second 
generation before the nest fell. Comb 7a was probably only slightly 
younger than 5, and had larvae of the second generation. Combs 
6 and 7 had not produced any adults. Either they were constructed 
after 5 > 7 a and 8, or they were constructed in sequence and not 
used. Since the cells peripheral to the masses of capped cells in combs 
8 and 9 (Fig. 9) were free of meconia, the pupae of these combs 
must have been of the first generation. Combs 10 and 11, free of 
meconia and with low cell walls^ may have been empty or may have 
contained first-generation eggs and young larvae before the nest fell. 
The entire nest contained an estimated 27,600 cells, and of these 
approximately 3,000 contained pupae. The nest was at least two- 
plus developmental units old, and possibly older. That is, it is 
possible that combs 1 through 7a had produced more than two gen- 
erations of brood, and that comb 7a, may have produced at least one 
full generation before combs 8 through 1 1 were even constructed. 
It is interesting that nearly all the brood were in pupal stages, 
and that eggs and younger larvae were totally lacking. It may be 
that the fall of the nest caused the adults to remove the younger 
brood in order to devote all their efforts to rearing the older brood 
to maturity. Or it is possible that the fall of the nest had nothing 
to do with it, and that the colony was mature and was getting ready 
to swarm. In Panama, Rau (1933) collected an apparently mature 
colony of Stelopolybia pallipes var. bequaerti, the brood of which 
Fig. 8. Combs 5, 6 and 7 of the S. testacea nest in position on the 
spathe, with combs 7a-ll removed. The discontinuity in the rows of cells 
runs up the middle of comb 5. Combs 6 and 7 are nearly the same size 
and' cover the right side of comb 5. 
Fig. 9. Comb 8 of the S. testacea nest. The brood decreases in age from 
center outward. The empty cells in the center had all produced adults, and 
at the time the nest was collected adults were emerging from the innermost 
capped cells (note torn cell caps), indicating that these contained the oldest 
pupae. Newly-emerged adults can be seen resting on the comb. 
