1972 ] 
Corn — Pollster carnifex 
153 
tween associated and nonassociated nests in the incidence of para- 
sitism, the size of the adult population, or the average number of 
immatures per adult female. 
The nest at site B was under the eaves of a tin roof of an aban- 
doned house. There were no other wasps’ nests nearby. The nest 
structure was similar to that of the Costa Rican nests, except that 
the closed cells had flat recessed caps rather than convex caps as in 
Costa Rica. These cells average about 30.0 mm in overall length 
(s = 2.030 mm), a mean which was significantly larger than the 
mean of the Costa Rican nests (Fisher-Behrens test, d — 2.8851, 
0 = 73°, Vx, v 2 = 35, 10, p < 0.05). 
Most of the observations on this nest were made during hours of 
bright sunshine, when the wasps forage. The 2 adults present on 
the nest initially were marked at the beginning of the study. Others 
were marked within a day or 2 after emergence. (See Table 3.) 
The number of cells (28) remained constant throughout the 17 
days of observation. Only one cell, a peripheral one, was observed 
being enlarged. The queen brought in a ball of freshly macerated 
pulp and applied it herself, after unsuccessful attempts to divide it 
among her nestmates. Her behavior in applying the pulp was the 
same as that described by Eberhard (1969) in P. fuscatus. The 
queen applied the load with her mandibles, while holding her fore- 
tarsi on either side of the wall under construction. As she worked 
she moved her antennae in circles beside her head, touching the 
opposite, parallel wall as she did so. According to Eberhard, it is 
the antennal contact with the opposite cell walls which enables the 
Table 3 
Seventeen day history of a five membered colony of Polistes carnifex 
near Cali, Colombia. The solid line indicates presence on the nest. The 
dashed line indicates periods of foraging. Female No. 1 had developed 
ovaries. 
Female 
No. 
2 f 
3 * f 
4 * 
5 * 
Jan. Feb. 
16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 1 
^emerged 
fdied or disappeared 
