180 
Psyche 
[Vol. 90 
Methods 
Nest site and excavation 
A large Vespula macu/ifrons colony was discovered on 25 Novem- 
ber 1981, nesting in sandy soil in sand pine scrub habitat at the 
Archbold Biological Station in Highlands County, Florida (27° 1 1' 
N, 81° 21' W). Flight from the colony was observed on 1 February 
1982 and 1 1 March 1982 and we excavated the colony on 20 March 
1982. 
We placed traps (similar to Fig. 193 in Edwards, 1980) on each of 
the two entrances of the nest in the early morning and aroused the 
nest by pounding the ground. Workers (and some males) flying 
from the nest were caught in the traps. We discharged a carbon 
dioxide fire extinguisher into one of the entrances, which chilled and 
partially narcotized wasps remaining inside; we then excavated the 
nest. 
Because of inadequate narcosis of the wasps and because the nest 
was intersected by several large roots, we were unable to remove the 
nest intact. Many combs were broken into several pieces. The pieces 
were placed in large polyethylene bags and kept frozen until 
examined. 
Analysis of nest contents 
We traced each comb fragment onto a sheet of paper of uniform 
weight, and recorded a visual estimate of the proportions of cells 
containing capped brood, eggs, and uncapped brood. Of those cells 
which contained eggs, we estimated the proportion which contained 
more than one egg. Any large (queen-size) cells present were 
counted individually in each of the above categories. 
To determine the comb area of each fragment we cut out and 
weighed each tracing (weight X cm^/g for the paper = area). We 
counted the number of small (worker-size) cells on 12 representative 
comb fragments totaling 3964 cells. We used the mean number of 
cells/cm2 to estimate the number of cells in each of the above cell 
content categories for each fragment. These per-fragment estimates 
were then summed for the entire nest (205 comb fragments). 
Sex ratio of colony 
We estimated the sex ratio of the capped brood in small cells by 
removing 33 pupae or pharate adults from each of 16 comb frag- 
