1980] 
Seeley & Seeley — Social Wasp 
303 
Figure 1 shows a side view of the nest with the covering envelope 
removed; figure 2 shows the opposite nest side with the envelope 
intact The nest’s maximum outside dimensions were 69 cm wide, 60 
cm high, and 40 cm deep. The envelope consisted of a single paper 
layer up to 1 mm thick which completely enclosed the nest s combs. 
Two holes in the nest bottom, each of area approximately 8 cm , 
provided passageways into the nest. Above the six horizontal layers 
of paper comb was a cone-shaped structure consisting of paper 
layers and air pockets (see figure 1) and the remnants of a seventh, 
perhaps the original, comb. Other published photographs of Vespa 
affinis nests in India (Chopra 1926) and Malaya (van der Vecht 
1957) show an even more pronounced roof cone. Van der ec 
(1957) has suggested that this structure helps shed water from the 
nest during torrential rains. . , 
Figure 3 shows the nest’s bottom comb. We measured the size ot 
the nest’s comb cells by measuring the wall-to-wall cell diameter 
across 10 cells in a row. Repeating this measurement 12 times gave a 
mean ±1 standard deviation of 9.3 ±0.2 mm for the wall-to-wall cell 
diameter. A perfectly symmetrical hexagon of this size would 
enclose an area of 75 mm 2 . This value, together with estimates of the 
area of each comb (measured with a tape measure), yielded an 
estimate of 9600 cells total for the nest’s 6 combs. The combs varied 
in thickness between 23 and 30 mm. A “wasp space” of approxi¬ 
mately 16 mm between adjacent combs and between the edges of the 
combs and the envelope provided passageways throughout the nest. 
The combs were supported by short vertical pillars between adjacent 
C0 /S b is shown in figure 3, the wasps left behind several cells 
containing pupae when they abandoned the nest. By the time we 
dissected the nest the ants had perforated the white pupal cell 
cappings and were eating the pupae. We found no eggs or larvae in 
any of the other cells. Evidently, either the wasps waited until most 
of the last generation of brood had emerged before absconding, or 
the ants had removed all the eggs and larvae earlier in the day. We 
doubt the small ants could have cleaned out the nest, had it been 
filled with brood, in the relatively few hours between the wasps 
departure (as early as sunrise, about 0600 hours) and our dissection 
of the nest (at 1400 hours). Thus it appears that these wasps can 
perform colony movements for which they prepare by ceasing brood 
rearing long before departing the old nest. 
