io6 
Psyche 
[March 
the nest. Food supplied to an early nest usually is the function of 
the subordinate cofoundresses. When workers emerge they assume 
this duty. 
Rabb (i960) put together an extensive list of prey collected by 
workers of P. annularis. It included 16 families of Lepidoptera and 
a few records of prey from the orders Diptera, Hemiptera, Homop- 
tera, Hymenoptera and Orthoptera, as well as a few spiders. About 
20% pf the wasps returning to the nest had some type of prey while 
most returned with liquid. 
Rabb also reported that 85% of the prey collected was gotten from 
wooded areas while the remaining prey was taken in fields. This is 
in contrast to the collecting of some other polistine species (e.g., P. 
fuscatus and P. exclamans) that collect most of their prey in fields. 
Colony Protection 
Nests and the inclusive immature stages are protected in a number 
of ways : 1 ) repellent compounds are routinely smeared on the nest 
pedicel (Hermann and Dirks, 1974) ; 2) adult wasps rest in a char- 
acteristic defensive fashion at night; 3) a defensive posture is readily 
assumed by females when a riest is approached; 4) along with a 
defensive posture the prothoracic legs and possibly the antennae and 
wings are moved in such a way as to represent a warning mechanism ; 
5) darting at small intruders is occasionally seen; 6) adult wasps, 
especially workers, will aggressively attack an intruder. 
Defensive Smearing — Hermann and Dirks (1974) have reported 
smearing by a number of polistine wasps and the possibility of smear- 
ing by all vespids. Smearing is accomplished by the rubbing of the 
gastral sternites on the structure to be smeared (usually the nest 
pedicel). The glands that produce the repellent compounds are found 
inside the hemocoel immediately above gastral sternites 6 and 7. The 
glands consist of numerous unicellular structures, each joined to the 
sternite base by a single filamentous duct. The sternite has a dis- 
penser brush to facilitate the smearing process. 
The smearing compounds evidently are volatile since smearing 
takes place periodically throughout the day. Detection of the com- 
pounds or lack of them appears to be accomplished with the antennae. 
Double smearing appears to occur often and may be the result of 
detecting more of the smearing compound on one side of the pedicel 
than the other. Occasionally, the pedicel is worked with new wood 
fiber. The mandibular gland may play a role here in adding a differ- 
ent and possibly a synergistic repellent compound to the nest base. 
