129 
April, 1887.] history society of Wisconsin. 
perish.” Nothing that we have seen indicates that the males 
perish from any other cause than hunger and cold. 
On October 8th we opened two nests of V. germanica (No. 10 
and No. 11). Both were ground nests, and both had evidently 
been deserted for some time since the combs were partly covered 
with mould, and the lame of a fly were found occupying a num¬ 
ber of the cells and feasting upon the larvae of the wasps. In 
one of the nests we found a number of larvae and pupae in various 
stages; those not injured by the flies were in good condition, and 
a few were just ready to come out. 
In the other the same state of affairs prevailed, we counted 
ninety-seven queen larvae and about twice as many neuters and 
males, many of them being alive. No adult males were found 
in either nest. The difference in this respect between V. ger¬ 
manica and V. maculata may be explained by supposing that 
while in V. germanica the males do not return to the nest after 
the marriage flight, in V. maculata they do return-or that per¬ 
haps they never leave the nest, the ceremony being peiformed 
inside. 
Our wasps are evidently not so high in the scale of life as t le 
bees. The specialization of function in the queen bee, the leduc 
tion in the number of the queens, and the slaughter °f^ e ^ r ^ es 
after their usefulness ceases show a higher form of socia 1 e an 
is found among the wasps. It is difficult to understand why, m 
animals so highly developed as bees, a reduction in the num er 
of drones has not taken place before this. Or, as Romanes sug 
gests, it is remarkable that they have not learned to ki t e 
drones at the most profitable time in the larval or bva state. 
But, after all, this is looking at the matter from so entirely 
human a stand point that it is, perhaps, open to the 0 arge o 
narrowness. The life of the bees is dependent upon the welfare 
of the flowers; and if the bees did not gather the po en wi 
which they feed the useless drones the flowers mig t e ess 
abundant, and thus the bees would be the sufferers in t e * 
“It hath been an opinion,” says Lord Bacon, that t e renc 
are wiser than they seem, while the Spaniards seem wiser an 
