April, 1887.] history society of Wisconsin. 
127 
the economy of wasps, instead of affording an exception to the 
universal benevolence and wisdom of nature, is, in reality a most 
merciful effort of instinct.” 
Romanes, in his work on Animal Intelligence, pages 
167-168, says that he considers the philosophy of drone-killing 
in wasps even more difficult than in the case of bees. “As this 
season of universal calamity approaches, the workers destroy all 
the larval grubs—a proceeding which, in the opinion of some 
writers, strikingly exemplifies the beneficience of the Diety ! 
Now it does not appear to me easy to understand how the pres¬ 
ence of such an instinct in this case is to be explained. For, on 
the one hand, the individual females which are destined to live 
through the winter cannot be conspicuously benefited by this 
slaughter of grubs; and, on the other hand, the rest of the com¬ 
munity is so soon about to perish, that one tails to see of what 
advantage it can be to it to get rid of the grubs. If the whole 
human race, with the exception of a few women, were to perish 
periodically once in a thousand years, the race would profit noth¬ 
ing by destroying, a few months before the end of eachmilleniurn,- 
all sick persons, lunatics, and other useless mouths ! I have not 
seen this difficulty with regard to the massacring instinct in 
wasps mentioned before, and I only mention it now in order to 
draw attention to the fact that there seems to be a moie puzzling 
problem presented here than in the case of the analogous instinct 
as presented by bees. The only solution that has presented 
itself to my mind is the possibility that in earlier times, or in 
other climates, wasps may have resembled bees in living through 
the winter, and that the grub-slaying instinct is in them a sur¬ 
vival of one which was then, as in the case of the bees now a 
clearly beneficial instinct.” 
With such weighty considerations before us we felt anxious to 
ascertain the exact facts relating to the grub-slaying and drone 
slaying habit, and if possible, to gain some hints that might aid 
in the solution of the problem. We obtained sufficient evidence 
on this point to prove that the workers of two species of our 
wasps, V. maculata and V. germanica, possessing less Spartan 
heroism, or perhaps less intelligence than their European cousins, 
