1975] 
Jeanne — Stelopolybia 
261 
Toward midday workers could be seen flying about vegetation 
away from the swarm. As the afternoon wore on, these became 
more and more evident, and more so in a particular direction away 
from the swarm. These wasps seemed attracted to prominent ob- 
jects in the environment — fenceposts, tall weeds or shrubs in the 
pasture, or leaves near the tips of twigs in tall second growth. In 
many instances they merely hovered a few centimeters from the 
object (“hovering”), but often they landed and walked about slowly 
with the head down and gaster up, lantennating the surface over 
which they moved (“landing”). 
During the course of an afternoon activity at the swarm varied. 
Several times rapid increases in activity were observed during which 
great numbers of wasps took off and flew about in a large, diffuse 
cloud. During these times the numbers hovering iat and landing 
on vegetation within 10-20 meters of the swarm often increased 
conspicuously. Within minutes, however, many of these wasps re- 
turned to the swarm and the activity dropped to its previous level. 
As early as 1430 (February 7) two hours and twenty minutes 
before the swarm began to move on that day, a new kind of behavior 
was observed. Some of the workers landing on the upper parts of 
conspicuous objects walked rapidly over the surface, dragging the 
gaster continuously (“dragging”). The wings were usually buzzed, 
though sometimes this was interrupted with brief periods during 
which the wings were merely outstretched. The distance walked 
was usually in the range of 10-15 cm, taking 2-3 seconds, though 
there was much variation. At the end of a run the worker imme- 
diately took off. 
Close observation of these individuals indicated that either the 
apical margin of the 5th (penultimate) sternite or the basal portion 
of the 6th was in contact with the substrate. Neither the tip of the 
gaster nor the sting made contact. The exposed surfaces of the fifth 
and sixth sternites are more or less uniformly covered with short 
hairs, and don’t appear markedly different from other sternites in 
this regard. The basal portion of the 6th sternite, normally over- 
lapped by the 5th, is hairless and quite smooth. In workers this 
region is noticeably more convex than in queens. Though it was 
not possible to confirm during observation, it may be this basal 
region that is in contact with the substrate. 
Later in the afternoon the frequency of dragging increased, though 
not steadily. Often several workers could be seen performing it in 
a small area within a few minutes, then none would be seen for 1 5 or 
20 minutes. By midafternoon the activities of hovering about, land- 
