1931 ] Nest-Building Habits of Polistes rubiginosus 139 
clinging queen, the whole nest crashed to the floor. I could 
not again fasten the nest to the metal ceiling, but since I 
had seen P. pallipes and P. variatus build again in the same 
spots after their nests had been taken, I hoped the same 
would occur here. Not knowing what to do with the nest, 
I placed it, open side down, on the shelf near the ventilat- 
ing hole where the wasps would pass it on their way in and 
out. The wasps were furious for some time, and flew an- 
grily about, and then one by one settled on the spot where 
the nest had been attached. After an hour, five queens left 
this congregation and assumed duties on the nest on the 
shelf. I left them with six wasps on the ceiling at the old 
site, and five on the nest on the shelf. 
When their instincts are misled, one may expect almost 
anything. When I returned to the colony on June 23, I 
found the number of wasps complete, but they had left the 
ceiling and all were now at work on the nest on the shelf. 
Here, it seemed, would be something new in behavior; in- 
stead of all constructing a new nest, all now united in work 
on the old nest on the shelf, destroying it and carrying it out 
bit by bit. About fifteen cells had already been completely 
removed; the nest material and larvae were being dis- 
carded, and even the capped cells were broken open and the 
pupae carried out. Some of the queens would bite off pieces 
of the nest and drop them directly below, while others 
would fly out a distance and drop them while on the wing. 
One particular wasp would always drop her load below, 
six inches east, where already an accumulation of litter on 
the floor told of her diligence; another habitually dropped 
her loads toward the south. Eleven of the old, marked 
queens remained on the nest, but no new ones were there ; 
this indicates that the maturing pupae had been thoroughly 
destroyed. 
The whole colony seemed to be demoralized, and several 
were seen eating and kneading the flesh of their own young. 
They were all restless, and appeared nervous and angry, 
working in helter-skelter fashion, destroying when they 
should be building, yet all seemed to be of one mind, intent 
upon demolishing the nest and its contents and getting it 
off the premises as soon as possible. At a short distance 
